
qass Jl/\ 142 ,- 

Book 'D 7 



I- 



I 



* 




JOTTINGS 



I f)\' s<)\!!" m Tijy orjF^T*^ op INTERKST 



^O N 1 : 1 1 E N G E EXC U RS 1 N . 



n\ 



EDWARD T. STEVENS. F.S.A 



Hon. Director of tlie, Salisbury and Souin Wilts Museum, 
; Hon. C'jratoi- • m<* IV-.rstee of th<? B-ricknioie Miiseuni, 

trrespoiiding !SFember of the Academy of Nucural Sciences of Philadelphia, 
Forcicp. Member of ihc Anthropological Institute of New YorT<, 
A ..nor of Flint CKips," &c. 



SALISHUKN 


: DllOWN ^. 


1 


LONDO?n: SIMPK: 


^ MARSHAL! 

1882. 


' 1 



^At.lSMlKV; "^RNNHTT tiROTHn:RS, PR' JTERS, lOl'KNAL OFFICP. 



JOTTINGS 






ON SOME OF THE OBJECTS OF INTEREST 



IN THE 



TONEHENGE EXCURSION. 



BY 



EDWARD T. STEVENS, F.S.A., 

Hon. Director of the Salisbury and South Wilts Museum, 
Hon. Curator and Trustee of the Blackmore Museum, 
y :orresponding Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

Foreign Member of the Anthropological Institute of New York, 
I Author of " Flint Chips," &c. 



SALISBURY : BROWN & CO. 
LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. 



1882. 



V V 



^^ 






.6 7 



SALISBURY : 
BENNETT BROTHERS, PRINTERS, 
JOURNAL OFFICE. 



/WITHDRAWN 

N0Vl2:«18^ 



CO^NTENTS. 



/ 



PAGE. 



Preface 
The Route 

Traces of Early Occupation 
Earth-works in the Route ... 
Names of Rivers, &c., in the Route 
Salisbury. — The Council Chamber ... 
The Bull-ring 
The Market-place 
The " Blue Boar" 
Ludlow and the Royalists 
The City Gates 
Events relating to Salisbury 
Old Sarum. — General description 

Remains of Masonry . . . 

The Cathedral 

Roman Roads to the Fortress 

Palaeolithic Implement found there 

Events relating to Old Sarum ... 

Change in the name of the place 

Removal of the Cathedral from Old Sarum 

The Bishops of Old Sarum 

Their remains and Tombs removed to Salisbury 

Cathedral 
The Earls of Salisbury 
The Burgh at Old Sarum 
Represented in Parliament 
Hour-glass stand in Stratford Church 
Heale House. — Charles II. finds shelter there after the battle of 

Worcester 



I 

2 

2 

3 
6 

9 
II 

13 
H 

15 

i6 

24 
29 

30 

32 

33 
34 
37 
38 
39 

39 
43 
44 

44 
46 

49 



IV 

PAGE. 



Netton ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 52 

Great Durnford Church ... ... ... ... ... 53 

Ogbury Camp ... ... ... ... ... ... 53 

Lake House. — Palaeolithic Implements found near Lake ... 54 

,, The Rev. E. Duke's Collection at Lake House ... 55 

Amesbury. — Events relating to Amesbury ... ... ... 65 

,, " Gauntlet" pipes made at Amesbury ... ... 67 

,, *' Gauntlet" and other tobacco-pipes found at Salis- 
bury and elsewhere ... ... ... 69 

„ The dates of tobacco-pipes ... ... ... 74 

,, '* Vespasian's Camp" ... ... ... ... 78 

Stonehenge. — ... ... ... ... .. ... 78 

„ Mystic virtues of the Stones ... ... ... 80 

„ " Historical" Account of its origin ... ... 80 

„ Dr. Guest's explanation of the legend ... ... 81 

„ Aubrey and Pepys visit Stonehenge ... ... 82 

„ Description of Stonehenge ... ... ... 84 

,, The " Slaughtering Stone" ... ... ... 84 

,, What tools were used by the builders of Stone- 
henge? ... ... ... ... . •• 85 

The " Friar's Heel Stone" ... ... ... 86 

„ Legend of the "Friar's Heel" ... ... ... 87 

,, Description of Stonehenge (<:^«//«z^(ffl^) ... ... 88 

„ Fall of two of the Great Trilithons ... ... 91 

„ The "Altar-Stone" ... ... ... ... 93 

,, Foreign Stone having two cavities ... ... 94 

,, Was Stonehenge erected at two periods ? •••94 

,, The Petrology of the Stonehenge Stones ... 97 

,, Tool-marks on the Stones ... ... ...99 

„ Were the Stones squared on the spot ? ... ... 100 

,, Transport of Large Stones by a people living in the 

Stone Age ... ... ... .. 100 

,, The Avenues and Cursus ... ... ... 102 

„ Who erected Stonehenge ? ... ... ... 103 

Salisbury Plain ... ... ... ... ... ... 104 

Barrows near Stonehenge ... ... ... ... ... 104 

Wiltshire Long Barrows (not containing Chambers) ... ... 106 



JJ 
>> 

>> 



>> 

>> 



3» 
JJ 
JJ 



J J 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 



Wiltshire Long Barrows (not containing Chambers)- 
Remains of Funeral Feasts 
Mode of Burial in 
Evidence as to Human Sacrifices 
Flint Implements in 
Pottery in ... ... ... ... T 

Secondary Interments in 
Chambered Long Barrows of this District 

Tolmen Entrances to 
Monoliths and Triliths in, and upon 
The Worship of Stones 
Mode of Burial in 
,, ,, ,, Presence of Cleft Skulls 

Round Barrows of this District 

Methods of Interment in 
Interments by Inhumation ... 
Contracted Posture of Skeletons 
Austral Aspect of Skeletons 
Interments by Cremation ... 
Urn Burial in 
Sepulchral Pottery in 
Cinerary Urns in ... 
"Incense Cups" in 
Food Vessels in ... 
Drinking Cups in 
Stone Implements in 
Bronze Implements in 
Sheaths and Hafts of Bronze Daggers 
British Bronze Age divided into Two Periods 
Chronology of the Bronze Age in Britain 
Bronze Implements cast in Britain 
The Alloy (Bronze) made in Britain 
Round Barrows of this District — 

Ornaments of Gold in 
Remains of Animals in 
Remains of Man in 
Difference in Cranial Type 
Relative Antiquity of Stonehenge and the Barrows 



JJ 
JJ 
j> 
>j 

5 J 
JJ 
JJ 
)J 
JJ 
JJ 
J> 
>J 
JJ 
JJ 



JJ 
JJ 
5> 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 
JJ 
J J 
> J 
J» 
JJ 



JJ 
JJ 

JJ 

J J 



JJ 
J» 

JJ 
JJ 



PAGE. 

109 
I 10 
III 
III 

"3 

113 
116 

116 

118 

120 

120 

120 

123 

123 

123 

125 
126 
126 
126 
129 
129 

131 
131 
134 
136 

137 
138 
139 
140 

140 

140 
141 
142 

143 
148 



VI 



Belief in the Possession of a " Soul" by Inanimate Objects 

The Bustard 

Camp Hill 

The Tournament Ground 

The Rivers Wyly and Nadder 

The Hospital of St. Giles, Fugglestone 

George Herbert and Bemerton 

Pleistocene deposits at Bemerton and Fisherton 

Palaeolithic Implements ... 

Cave deposits ... ) 

Fisherton Anger 

,, ,, The Hermitage at 

,5 ,, Monastery of the Black Friars 

The Begging-Friars 

Salisbury. — Monastery of the Grey Friars ... 

Orientation of Interments 

The First Fisherton Gaol 



PAGE. 

150 
152 
156 
156 

157 
158 

159 
162 
163 
167 
171 
172 

174 

175 
176 
177 
178 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FIG. PAGE. 

1. The Old Council House, destroyed by Fire in 1780 ... 7 

2. The Old Guildhall at Salisbury ... ... ... 8 

3. " Buckingham's Tomb, " at Britford ... ... 13 

4. View of Old Sarum ... ... ... ... 24 

5. Section of Old Sarum ... ... ... ... 25 

6. Plan of Old Sarum ... ... ... ... 26 

7. Plan of the Cathedral of Old Sarum ... ... 30 

8. Palaeolithic Implement found at Old Sarum ... ... 33 

9 and 10. Tombs of William Longspee and his son ... 40 

II to 14. Tombs of Bishops of Old Sarum, &c. ... ... 40 

15. Bishop Poore's Monument in its original state, 1237 ... 42 

16. Palaeolithic Implement, Lake. Lent by John Evans, Esq., 

F.R.S. ... ... ... ... ... 54 

17. Alabaster Tablet, in the Salisbury Museum. Lent by "The 

Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ire- 
land" ... ... ... ... ... 55 

18 to 20. Amber Ornaments, in the Rev. E. Duke's Collection 60 & 61 

22. " Gauntlet" pipe, made at Amesbury ... ... 68 

23. ,, ,, found at Cirencester ... ... 69 

24. Tobacco-pipe, found at Wigan ... ... ... 69 

25 and 26. Makers'-marks, on the heels of tobacco-pipes found in 

Salisbury ... ... ... ... ... 70 

27 to 30. Tobacco-pipes, found in Salisbury ... 70 & 71 

31. Tobacco-pipes, made at Broseley ... ... •••73 

32. Dated tobacco-pipe .. ... ... ... 72 

33. " Fairy" tobacco-pipe ... ... ... •••74 

34 and 35. Tobacco-pipes of the period of Elizabeth 74 & 75 
36 and 37. Tobacco-pipes of the period of James I. and Charles I. 75' 



VUl 

38. Forms of Tobacco-pipes in use from 1630 to 1641 ... 76 

39. Tobacco-pipe of the period of the Commonwcaltii and 

Charles II. ... ... ... ... 76 

.\o. Forms of Tobaccs-pipes in use from 1650 to 1688 ... 76 

41 nnd 42. Tobacco-pipes of the period of William III. ... 77 

43. Ornamented Tobacco-pipe of the period of James I. or 

Charles I. ... ... ... ... 77 

44. Stonehenge, restored ... ... ... ... S^ 

45. (iround-plan of Stonchenge, restored ... ... S5 

46. (iround-plan of Stonehenge, as it is ... ... yo 

^7. Plan .showing the way in which the Imposts of the Outer 

Circle dovetail into each other ... ... ... 91 

48. The Great Trilithon ... ... ... ... 92 

49. Oround-plan of Stonchenge, restored ; showing the relative 

positions of the Foreign and Local Stones ... ... 95 

50. Oround-plan of Stonehenge, as it is; showing the present 

positions of the Foreign and Local Stones ... 96 

51. Ci round-plan of Stonchenge, restored ... ... 97 

52. A Long Barrow ... ... .. ... 107 

53 and 54. Diagrams to illustrate the formation of Oval Barrows 108 
55 and 56. Leaf-shaped Flint Arrow-heads, found in Long 

Barrows ... ... ... ... ... 112 

57. Fictile Vessel, found in a Long Barrow at Norton Bavant, 

Wills ... ... ... ... ... 112 

5S. l-'ntrance to Chambers in Long Barrow at Uley, Gloucester- 
shire ... ... ... ... ... I I S 

59. Tolmen Fntrance to Chamber on the North side of Long 

Barrow at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire ... 117 

60. Monolith, heart-shaped curves of double walling, and 

pyramidal piling, in Long Barrow at Ablington, Glou- 
cestershire ... ... ... .. 117 

in. Bowl-shaped Barrow ... ... ... ... 121 

62. Bell-shaped Barrow ... ... ... ... 121 

63. Disc-shaped Barrow ... ... ... ... 122 

64. Section of Bell-shaped Barrow, at Winlerslow, Wilts, with 

Grave four feet deep ... ... ... ... 124 

65. Section of r>owl-shaped Barrow, at East Kennett, near Ave- 

bury, Wilts, with grave five feet deep ... ... 124 



IX 

■HG. PAGE. 

66. Section of Bowl-shaped Barrow, near Cawthorn Camps, 

N.R. Yorkshire, with grave eleven feet deep, and 
skeletons extended ... ... ... ... 125 

67. Section of Disc-shaped Barrow at Winterbourne Stoke, 

"Wilts, with burnt bones and urn in shallow graves ... 126 

68. Urn, from Bowl-shaped Barrow, at Bishopston, Wilts ... 128 

69. Urn, from Bulford, Wilts ... ... ... 130 

70. " Incense Cup," from Bulford, Wilts ... ... 131 

71. Drinking Cup, from East Kennet, Wilts ... ... 132 

72. Drinking Cup, found with secondary interment, Wilsford 

Long Barrow, Wilts ... ... ... ... 133 

73. Stone hammer-axe, from Wilsford, Wilts ... ... 135 

74. Leaf-shaped flint Javelin-head, found in Oval Barrow at 

Winterbourne Stoke, Wilts. Lent by John Evans, Esq., 
F.R.S. ... ... ... . ... 136 

75. Stemmed and barbed flint arrow-head, from Woodyates, 

Dorset ... ... ... ... ... 136 

76. Bronze wedge-shaped celt, from " Bush Barrow," Nor- 

manton, Wilts ... ... ... ... 137 

77. Gold Ornaments, from Normanton, Wilts ; Upton Lovell, 

Wilts ; and Bircham, Norfolk ... ... ... 141 

78. Section of Brick-earth, at Fisherton ... ... 163 

79. Palaeolithic Implement, Fisherton. Lent by John Evans, 

Esq., F.R.S. ... ... ... ... 164 

80. Palaeolithic Implement, Bcmerton ,, ,, ... 164 

81. „ „ Highfield ,, „ • 164 

82. „ „ Milford Hill „ ,, .. 16S 

83. Section of Deposits at Bemerton ... ... ... 166 

84. Palaeolithic Implement, Le Moustier ... ..168 
85 to 90. Implements found at Laugerie and La Madelaine 

169 & 170 
91 to 93. Animal-sculptures of Palaeolithic age. Lent by myself 

170 & 171 

94. Fisherton Old Church ... ... ... ... 173 

95. Old Buildings in Fisherton ... ... ... 174 



Nos. 31 to 43 were lent by Llewellynn Jewitt, Esq., F.S.A. 

Nos. 18 to 20; 52 to 85; and 75 to 77 were lent by the Society 

of Antiquaries of London. 



PREFACE. 



The following little work was written by my father, as a 
guide to an Excursion made by the members of the 
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society in 
August, 1876. 

It was originally intended merely for the use of members 
of the Society upon that occasion, subsequently, however^ 
a limited number of copies were printed and disposed of 
to the public. As there have since been many enquiries 
for the book, I have had it reprinted, omitting allusions to 
the particular excursion for which it was written, with a 
view of rendering it, as far as possible, a guide such as may 
be used by those who make " the Stonehenge Excursion." 

In the introduction to the first edition my father wrote : 
— " To the Society of Antiquaries of London I am indebted 
for the loan of many of the illustrations to the late Dr. 
Thurnam's valuable paper on " Ancient British Barrows."^ 
Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., has lent me several of the wood- 
cuts used in his important work on " The Ancient Stone 
Implements of Great Britain,"^ the book on the subject, a 
work that should find its place on the shelves of every one 
who takes the smallest interest in pre-historic Archaeology. 
To Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., and Mr. Henry Brown 

^ " Archseologia," vol. xli., pp. 161 — 244; vol. xliii., pp. 285 — 552. 

" Longmans, 1872. 



Xll 



(Salisbury) my especial thanks are due for the loan of many 
important illustrations." 

I can only add my sincere thanks to the Society and 
those gentlemen, for the very kind manner in which they 
have placed at my disposal, illustrations so greatly en- 
hancing the value of this work. 

EDWARD STEVENS. 
Sik September, i88i. 



THE STONEHENGE EXCURSION. 



THE ROUTE. 

The route, as far as Amesbury, lies along one of the prettiest 
of our Wiltshire valleys — the valley of the Avon. Within 
comparatively recent geological times, the Avon, periodically 
swollen by the drainage from the adjacent downs and from 
other causes, prevented also from spreading by the narrow 
limits of the valley, seems frequently to have assumed a tor- 
rential character. The force of this torrent has deepened the 
valley and scooped out the hill-sides that opposed its im- 
petuous course, thus adding not a Httle to the picturesque 
features of the scenery. This scooping out of the side of the 
valley in the direction of the flow of the stream may be 
especially noticed at Little Durnford, Woodford, and opposite 
Heale House; but it really occurs at every spot where the 
course of the river sweeps across the valley directly towards a 
hill-side. 

After we leave Amesbury, the homeward route — by way of 
Salisbury Plain — is of a totally different character, for it lies 
along the bleak chalk upland which divides the valley of the 
Avon from that of the Wyly. Such chalk downs are so cha- 
racteristic of Wiltshire scenery that, according to the popular 
idea, the county is one vast Salisbury Plain ; this of course is 
not the fact, but nearly three-fifths of the surface of the county 
really does consist of chalk and the kindred formations. 

Although " Albion" may have received her namjc from the 
whiteness of her sea-wall towards France, yet the chalk forma- 
tion is by no means confined to England, but occurs over a 
large surface in other parts of Europe ; it is to be found from 
the north of Ireland to the Crimea, a distance of about 1140 
geographical miles; and from the south of Sweden to the 
south of Bordeaux, a distance of about 840 geographical 
miles. But the chalk did not at any period exist as a con- 
tinuous deposit over this vast region. The incipient chalk 
was, probably, first deposited in patches at the bottom of 

B 



2 . Chalk. 

marine basins or lagoons, and then became drifted over the 
bed of the cretaceous ocean ; precisely as a similar formation is 
now taking place near the Bermuda Islands and the Bahamas. 
There, a soft white calcareous mud, — consisting of broken-up 
corals, the exuviae of mollusks, and the faecal matter of conchs 
and coral-eating fish, — is now being deposited in the lagoons. 
This incipient chalk may be seen in the Maldiva Atolls as it is 
washed out from the lagoons, through narrow openings, into 
the ocean ; the waters of the sea being discoloured by it for a 
considerable distance. In the North Atlantic, the floor of the 
ocean, over an extensive area between Ireland and Newfound- 
land consists of soft mud, almost entirely composed, like the 
chalk, of minute forms of animal-life. A similar deposit, of 
the consistency of putty, occurs in other parts of the Atlantic — 
as, between the Faroe Islands and Iceland, and between Ice- 
land and Greenland — minute shells (of foraminiferae) consti- 
tute 95 per cent, of the entire mass. A lump of chalk contains 
remains of hundreds of such shells. If we think of this as we 
travel over Salisbury Plain, with chalk beneath and around 
us — mile after mile, we shall abandon the attempt to grasp the 
idea of number as applied to the minute organisms that have 
served to form our chalk hills, and shall content ourselves with 
the assurance that 

" The dust we tread upon was once alive." 

TRACES OF EARLY OCCUPATION. 

Traces of early occupation will be met at nearly every step 
we take. There are the earth-works at Old Sarum, as well as 
those known as Ogbury Camp and Vespasian's Camp. The 
defensive earth-work, called Durrington Walls, lies no more 
than about two miles to the north of our route ; other earth- 
works, near Orcheston and Shrewton, are at distances ranging 
from two to four miles ; and the fine earth-work — Yarnbury 
Castle — is onlv between four and five miles to the west of the 
" Druid's Head." 

But we not only visit, or pass near, many defensive works 
of the early inhabitants of this district, our route takes us into 
the midst of a vast pre-historic cemetery — barrows (burial- 
mounds) of different forms dot the Plain in all directions, 
indeed in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge they are so nume- 
rous that there are about three hundred within the radius of 



Earth-works. 3 

three miles. These burial-mounds belong almost entirely to 
two periods — the later Stone Age (Neolithic), and the Bronze 
Age ; those to be referred to the JBronze Age being the more 
numerous. 

At Highfield, about a mile from Salisbury, on the ridge 
that divides the Avon valley from that of the Wyly, and within 
sight of our route, are some earth-works of a later period, 
probably constructed subsequent to the Roman occupation. 
The site has been long under cultivation, and the works are 
only to be traced by the spade, they consist of shallow ditches 
and of "pits." The former were probably accompanied by 
banks, and these may have been crowned with palisades ; the 
pits have perhaps been used as store-places for grain. In the 
United States, especially in the eastern states of the Union, 
remains of such defensive works are very numerous ; in some 
instances, the holes left by the decay of the palisades were to 
be traced, whilst the pits ("caches") were still found to con- 
tain charred maize. Pits, similar to those at Highfield, have 
been examined near Amesbury : in the camp at Danebury-hill, 
near Stockbridge ; close to the railway-station at Westbury ; at 
Maiden Castle, near Dorchester ; and elsewhere. Within the 
defensive works at Worle Hill, Weston-super-mare, are a num- 
ber of carefully constructed '''caches" having the sides built of 
rubble-stone, in some of these charred wheat and barley was 
found. 

NAMES OF RIVERS AND PLACES THAT LIE IN 

THE ROUTE. 

The early settlers of the district have also left us enduring 
memorials of their occupation in the names of the rivers, the 
hills, and the villages that occur along our route. In such 
names are often preserved words which belong to a language 
that has ceased to be spoken in the district for centuries, they 
have long survived the overthrow of the people by whom they 
were bestowed, and have drifted down the stream of time on 
the tongue of successive generations of men — ignorant, for the 
most part, that what is to them but the name of a river, a hill, 
or a village — in some other language possesses a meaning 
indicative of the winding course of the stream, the position of 
the village, or some characteristic of the hill. 

Many of the earlier settlers have left us no written records ; 
their all too imperfect history has to be reconstructed out of 

B 2 



4 Names of Places, d^c. 

waifs and strays that have drifted down to us, and among 
these, the names they gave to the natural features of the 
country are very important ; for the story of the migrations of 
a people, or of their overthrow by some intrusive race, are 
frequently to be found embalmed in the name of hill, or valley, 
or river-ford. 

As a rule, a conquering people adopt from the conquered 
those names which designate the natural features of a country, 
such, for instance, as its rivers, its hills or mountains, its valleys, 
and its ancient tracts of woodland. The names of rivers, 
especially possess an almost indestructible vitality, so much is 
this the case that, throughout the whole of England, there is 
scarcely a river-name which is not Celtic. The towns or 
villages that stud the banks, for the most part, bear names 
imported by the Teutonic settlers in after times, but the river 
that flows by them, or the hill that rises above them, still retain 
their original Celtic appellation, and remain to attest the once 
universal Celtic occupation of the country. 

Our route until we reach Amesbury lies along the valley of 
the Avon — the word Avon is a generic term for " river." The 
origin of this name may be found in the Sanscrit root ap, 
which signifies " water." The termination on being probably 
expressive of distinct unity — so that Av-07i means literally • 
" a river." 

Another Celtic term for " water" is to be found in the name 
of one of the villages we propose to visit — Durnford (formerly 
Dur-en-ford), i.e., the " water-ford." The root of this word is 
the Celtic diibr, or dur, which means " water." Fordd in 
Welsh signifies a road generally, and not necessarily what in 
this part of the country we understand by a " ford," namely 
a shallow, or forddXA^ place in a stream. 

The word ford is supposed to be a derivative oi faran or 
fara, " to go," which fits in well with its meaning a " passage " 
only. The suffix fo7'd occurs both in Anglo-Saxon and in 
Norse names, but with characteristic difference of meaning. 
The fords of the Anglo-Saxon husbandmen were " passages " 
across rivers for men and cattle; \}ciQ fords of the Scandinavian 
sea-rovers were " passages " for ships up arms of the sea, as in 
the case of the fjords of Norway and Iceland, and the firths of 
Scotland. We have the word in this sense in Deptford, the 
" deep reach" on the Thames. 

There are two villages close to Old Sarum bearing names 



Names of Places^ qt'c. 5 

into which the word ford enters — Winterbourne Ford and 
Strat/^?'^ — the one is situated where those who travelled by 
the Roman road to Winchester forded the river Bourne — the 
other where was the ford of the Avon on the Roman road to 
Dorchester, the village has taken its name— Strat-ford — from 
being close to the ford of the " street," or Roman road.^ 

Nothing shows more conclusively the unbridged state of the 
streams in Saxon times than the fact that where the great lines 
of Roman road are intersected by rivers, we so frequently find 
important towns bearing the Saxon suffix-^r^. At Oxford, 
Hereford, Hertford, Bedford, Stafford, Wallingford, and 
Chelmsford, considerable streams had to be forded. 

The name of Stratford Le Bow contains internal evidence 
that the dangerous, narrow Saxon ford over the Lea was not 
replaced by a " bow" or "arched bridge," till after the time of 
the Norman conquest.^ 

During the latter part of the Excursion we shall find our- 
selves in the valley of the Wyly. There is a river Gwili in 
Csermarthenshire, this is evidently the same word, and possibly 
its original form. The Welsh word gwili means "full of 
turns" — winding ; but Welsh scholars tell us that the root of 
the word is to be found in givy, which signifies a "flow or 
flood." We have the word itself in the river Wye. From the 
name Wyly we have Wil-ton^, the ancient capital of the county 
— and Wil-tun-sc/iire^ (now Wiltshire), the county itself. 

Between Wilton and Salisbury the Wyly receives the waters 
of the river Nadder. A natural derivation of the word 
Naddcr would seem to be from the Welsh iieidr^ which means 
a snake or adder, — not an inappropriate name for a winding 
stream. This, however, does not appear to be the correct 
derivation, which is believed to be from the Welsh nad, " a 
shrill noise," or from na-der, " to utter a shriU cry." There is 

^ The Roman strata^ or paved roads, became the Saxon streets. 

• The bridge was built by Matilda, Queen of Henry I. 

^ A Teutonic element appears in the final ton, a word which does not 

necessarily mean a "town," but denotes any enclosure, great or small. 

In most cases, perhaps, our word ' ' village" would be its most correct 

interpretation, as, for instance, in Durrington (in Domesday, Dur-en-ton), 

i.e., "the village-by-the-river" — a place about three miles north-east of 

our route. But ton also appears in such words as Garston (gsers-tun) 

literally "grass-enclosure ;" and in Barton, a name applied to the buildings 

enclosed within a rick-yard — originally Bere-tiin, i.e., " corn-enclosure." 

"* The word shire (Anglo-Saxon scyr) means a "share or division." 



6 Salisbury. 

in Sanscrit a remarkable confirmation of the probability of 
such an etymology, for whilst nad means " to sound," nada, 
its derivative, means " a river." 

Immediately on entering the Wyly valley we shall pass 
Fugglestone Church. It has been suggested that if Fuggleston 
be not a corrupt or shortened form of some personal name, it 
is perhaps from the Anglo-Saxon fugel (a bird or fowl) and 
that the place may have been named y//§^/-/^;<j — " bird-village," 
from the wild foivl \ki2X frequented the neighbourhood of the 
Wyly a^nd the Nadder, near the confluence of which streams it 
is situated. 

After leaving Fugglestone we pass through the village of 
Quidhampton, in this word we have an interesting example 
of the gradual growth of a settlement. From the wood {cuid) 
cleared for the dwelling, to the homestead {ham) and thence 
to the village [tun). Quidhaui, however, may mean only the 
" homestead by the wood." 

It seems probable, from the retention of so many Celtic 
names, that the Celts were not wholly swept away by the 
advancing Saxons, but that some, at least, were absorbed into 
the general mass of the inhabitants. 

The names of places are liable to less phonetic abrasion 
than the other elements of a people's speech, and hence they 
serve to perpetuate dialects. From this circumstance, some 
light is thrown upon the affinities of the Celtic population of 
our county. It is found that the Celtic element in Wiltshire 
names approaches more closely to the Cornish or Armorican 
than the Welsh, and this shows that the Celtic tribes who 
inhabited this part of the country, though closely related to 
the Cymry or Welsh, were distinguished from them by certain 
dialectical differences which mark a diversity of race.^ 

SALISBURY. 

Starting from Salisbury the object first to attract the atten- 
tion of a visitor will probably be the Council Chamber, which 
stands at the south-eastern corner of the spacious Market- 
place. The present building was the gift of Jacob, Earl of 
Radnor, to the City of Salisbury, in 1795, and replaced a 
former structure partially destroyed by fire, in 1780. The old 

1 See Jones, "Names of Places in Wiltshire," in "Wilts Mag." vol. 
xiv., pp."i56— 180, 253 — 279; vol. XV., pp. 71 — 98. 




lii&i:!lllli|i||||!l|l|i|||IB^^^^^^^^^ 



Fig. 1. The Old Council House, destroyed by Fire in 1780. 



The Council House. — Salisbury. 

Council House dated from 1579, when the then Mayor (Mr. 
Christopher Weeks) '' drove the first pinne." An oil painting 
of this building is preserved in the Salisbury and South Wilts 
Museum; it was presented by Mrs. King Campbell. The 
lower part of the building was not enclosed but was open to 
the Market-place, the superstructure being supported on pillars. 
In the 17 th century alterations were made in this Council 
House, the open space was enclosed, the building was enlarged 
on the eastern side, and a portico supported on pillars was 
added to the northern side. Two engravings in the Museum 
show some of these alterations.^ 




Fig. 2. The Old Guildhall. 

Leland visited Salisbury about the middle of the T6th cen- 
tury, and thus describes the Council House : — " The Market- 
place in Sai^esbyri is fair and large, and welle waterid with a 
renning streamelet ; in a corner of it is domus civica, no very 
curious piece of work, but strongly builded of stone." The 
Rev. Canon Jackson remarks upon this : — " Leland's '■Domus 
Civica' must be the old Guildhall, of which there is a view in 
Hall's Picturesque Memorials of Salisbury.' The old ' Council 
Chamber' was built chiefly of timber, and of the date of 1573, 
30 years after his visit. ''^ (Figs, i and 2.) 

It is probable that the building referred to by Leland was, as 
Canon Jackson suggests, the old Guildhall. Canon Jackson 

^ The engravings were presented by Mr. John Harding, There is an 
enlargement also on the western side shown in the engravings. 
^ " Wilts Mag.," vol. i., p. 158, note. 



Bull-baiting. 9 

only refers to this woodcut, which was taken from a drawing 
" kindly communicated by a lady^ and executed after an 
original sketch in the possession of W. Boucher, Esq., the 
Chapter-Clerk. "2 It may, therefore, not be without interest to 
mention that the " original sketch" in question is a rather large 
drawing in water-colours, and is now deposited in the Museum. 
It passed into the hands of Edward Davis, Esq., Mr. Boucher's 
successor, and at Mr. Davis's death it became the property of 
my Father, who gave it to me. 

Although the old " Council Chamber was not built until 30 
years after Leland's visit, yet he may have seen a Council 
Chamber in " the Market-place in Saresbyri,^\ for a still older 
Council House had preceded the building to which Canon 
Jackson refers, and indeed had existed long enough to have 
fallen into decay in 1565. 

In the cattle-market, rather to the west of the Council 
Chamber, not long since, was to be seen the "bull-ring," a 
relic of the so-called " good old times." The brutal sport of 
bull-baiting appears to have been practised, on various occa- 
sions, in almost every town or village throughout the kingdom, 
and especially in market-towns. The baiting of a bull, a bear, 
or a horse, in the open streets of London, however, was punish- 
able by a fine of twenty shillings.^ 

Hentzner tells us,* that " the bull was worried by great 
English bull-dogs ; but not without risque to the dogs, and it 
sometimes happens they are killed on the spot ; fresh ones are 
immediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded 
or tired." This barbarous sport was even sanctioned by 
royalty, and we find that, on the 25th of May, 1559, Queen 
Elizabeth, soon after her accession to the throne, gave a splen- 
did dinner to the French Ambassadors ; after dinner was over 
they were entertained with the baiting of bulls and bears, and 
the Queen herself watched the pastime until six o'clock in the 
evening. 

As might have been expected, a public bull-baiting often led 
to scenes of riot and confusion. An instance of this kind 
may be found recorded in the annals of the city of Chester. 
*' A bull was baited at the high-cross, on the second of October 

' The late Miss Wickins. - Hall's description. 

"* vS tow's Survey, p. 666. 
^ "Travels in England," ed. 1757, p. 42. Hentzner visited this country 
in 1598. 



I o Bull-baiting. 

(1619), according to the ancient custome for the mayor's 
farewell out of his office ; it chaunced a contention fell out 
betwixt the butchers and the bakers of the cittye about their 
dogges then fyhtynge ; they fell to blowes ; and in the tumult 
of manye people woulde not be pacifyed ; so that the mayor, 
seeing there was greate abuse, being citezens, could not for- 
beare, but he in person hymself went out amongst them, to 
have the peace kept ; but they in their rage, lyke rude and 
unbroken fellowes, did lytill regarde hym. In the ende, they 
were parted ; and the begynners of the sayde brawle, being 
found out and examined, were commytted to the northgate. 
The mayor smotte freely ajnong them, and broke his white staff e ; 
and the cryer, Thomas Knowestley^ brake his mase ; and the 
brawle ended, i" 

The market-place at Dorchester formerly bore the name of 
the " Bull Stake," from the bull-baiting which took place in it ; 
although bulls were also baited, near the town, at a place 
about a mile and a quarter distant on the Blandford Road, 
where there is still the stone pillar standing to which the 
animal was fastened. At MarnhuU, in the same county, bull- 
baiting was annually held on the 3rd of May. The bull was 
"led in the morning into the Valley Meadow, where the 
Tenant of the Estate, by giving a garland, appoints who shall 
keep the Bull next year. This Estate once belonged to the 
Husseys, now to Edward Walter, Esquire." Wells, Somerset, 
was notorious for bull-baiting, and the practice was only 
abolished there about 1840. The animal was driven through 
the streets, and hounded almost to madness, in this state 
it was tied to a large iron-ring in the market-place, and then 
baited. My grandmother passed her early days at Wells, and 
I have a vivid recollection of her account of the way in which 
the infuriated beast was hunted through the streets, and of the 
terror thereby caused to women and children. 

There have ever been " benefactors" to bull-baiting ; and 
we find that, in 166 1, one George Staverton bequeathed 
property calculated to produce four pounds a year, to be 
increased to six pounds after the death of his wife and 
daughter. With this money a bull was to be purchased for 
the benefit of the poor of Wokingham, Berks ; the bull was 
to be baited on St. Thomas's Day, and was then to be cut up 
and the meat distributed, "one poor's piece not exceeding 

^ MS., Harl, 2125. " Hutchins, " History of Dorset." 



Changes in the Street. — Salisbujy. ii 

another's in bigness." In 1822, the corporation resolved ta 
aboHsh the custom, accordingly, they went in procession and 
solemnly pulled up the bull-ring, which had, from time im- 
memorial, been fixed in the Market-place. Great was the 
wrath of the populace at the loss of their " sport ;" they did 
not lose their meat, for the corporation duly distributed that. 
Numerous breaches of the peace arose, and even so late as in 
1835, the mob broke into the place where the doomed bull 
was kept — led it away and baited it in the Market-place, in 
defiance of the authorities. But the authorities of Chester 
were in advance of the corporation of Wokingham in putting 
down bull-baiting, for we find that, in 1599, Henry Hardware, 
the then Mayor, not only ordered '• the gyauntes in the 
midsomer show to be broken. He also caused the bull-ring 
to be taken up."^ 

A few bull-rings have escaped destruction. There is one 
at Brading, Isle of Wight ; and another at Hedon. The 
bull-ring remained in the Market-place at Salisbury until quite 
recently, for the most part unnoticed by the inhabitants. Un- 
fortunately, during the Mayoralty of J. Read, Esq. (1872 — 
1873), it obtruded itself upon public observation by causing a 
stumble to the Mayor's brother, as I am informed, and so it 
was removed. 

We learn from Leland that, in his time, there were " many 
fair streates in the Cite Saresbyri, and especially the High 
Streate, and Castel Streate, so caullid because it lyith as a way 
to the castelle of Old Saresbyry. Al the streates, in a maner, 
of New Saresbyri hath litle streamlettes and armes derivyd out 
of Avon that rennith throrough them." This peculiar feature 
of the city is no longer to be seen, the " channels," on sanitary 
grounds, have all been filled up. 

But, before Leland's time, " the Market-place in Sares- 
byri" was not so large as when he saw it. Winchester-street 
formerly extended to Castle Street, and consequently a range 
of houses faced the present Blue Boar Row, whilst another 
range faced the row of houses now known as Queen Street. 
In those days. Endless Street, Queen Street, Catherine Street, 
St. John's Street, and Exeter Street, passed under the common 
name of " High Street," a name now borne by a street in 
another part of the City. Our present High Street obtained 
the name it now bears in the beginning of the 15th century ; 

Harleian MSS., quoted by Hone, " Sports and Pastimes," &c., xliv. 



1 2 Buckingham V Execution. — Salisbury. 

at an earlier time, Castle Street, Minster Street, and High 
Street were known under the common name of "Minster 
Street." Castle Street, however, had received its present name 
so early as in 1326. 

About midway in the Blue Boar Row, on the northern side 
of the Market-place there stood until recently (1878 — 79) a 
small inn known as the " Saracen's Head." Tradition points 
to this spot as the scene of the execution of Henry Stafford, 
Duke of Buckingham : — " The first to raise Richard (HI.) to 
the throne, the last to feel his tyranny." Formerly the Blue 
Boar Inn occupied the site of the Saracen's Head, and Buck- 
ingham is said to have been executed, in 1483, on a Sunday 
morning, in the court-yard of the Blue Boar Inn.^ 

The discovery of a mutilated human skeleton (about 40 
years since) beneath the brick-flooring of one of the rooms of 
the Saracen's Head, induced the belief that Buckingham was 
actually buried near the place where he suffered. Contradic- 
tory opinions as to the place of his interment prevail ; some 
suppose that his remains were placed in St. Thomas's Church ; 
others that they were buried in the Church of the Grey Friars 
(at the back of St. Ann Street) ; whilst many believe that Brit- 
ford Church was the place of interment. Sir Richard Colt 
Hoare^ states that in the chancel of Britford Church is an 
altar-tomb commemorating the " fate of Henry Stafford, Duke 
of Buckingham, generally believed to have been beheaded in 
Salisbury, in 1483, and buried in the Grey Friars there."^ 
This tomb is shown in Fig. 3 ; it is clearly of a later period 
than that in which Buckingham suffered, and probably was not 
erected to his memory. 

The Blue Boar Row had obtained its present name as early 
as in 1444, for there is preserved in the Salisbury Museum an 
indenture of that date, setting forth a contract for building : — 
*' an hows with ynne the Boor azeynst the Market Place of 
Salesbury." The document is endorsed: — ''for byldyng a 
howse in the blew bore."^ 

' It may not be generally known that the celebrated line : — " Off with 
ihis head ; so much for Buckingham," pronounced with such effect by our 
stage Richards, is not in Shakspeare, but is believed to have been one of 
''CoUey Gibber's innovations. 

" " History of the Hundred of Cawden," p. 54. 

^ A description of this tomb may be found in Brown's *' Illustrated 
•Guide to Longford Castle, and Clarendon. " 

'^ A paper on this subject may be found in the " Wilts Mag.," vol, xv., 
329 — 336, contributed by J. E. Nightingale, F.S. A. 



The Blue Boar Row. — Salisbury. 



^3. 




Fig. 3. Buckingham's Tomb. 

The sign of the inn, that gave the name to the Row, was 
of course heraldic. The blue boar was a Yorkist badge, and 
was borne by Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV., 
who died in 1460. Mr. Nightingale thinks it possible that 
the name — the Blue Boar — may have had an earlier and 
different origin ; for the White Boar was a popular Yorkist 
sign during the reign of Richard III., that king's cognizance 
being a boar passa?it arge?it. "After Richard's defeat, the 
White Boars were changed into Blue Boars, this being the 
easiest and cheapest way of altering the sign, and so the White 
Boar of Richard became the Blue Boar of the Earl of Oxford, 
who had lately contributed to place Henry VII. on the throne." 

Nearly opposite the "Saracen's Head" stood the stocks, 
whipping-post and pillory.^ We find that a pillory and 
whipping-post were "set up" at Salisbury, in 1658. The 
stocks were removed to the Canal, about twenty years since, 
and now, like the bull-ring, have disappeared. The pillory- 

* See Naish's Map (1751) / 



14 T/ie Stoclis, Pillory^ o^c. — Salisbury. 

post was not re-erected. The last instance, I have been able 
to find, of punishment in the pillory, was in 183 1, and it took 
place in London.^ The pillory, however, was not abolished 
as a punishment until the year 1837.2 

After their removal to the Canal, the stocks were, I believe, 
only used once ; a man having been ordered to be placed in 
them by the late William Andrews, Esq., one of the magi- 
strates of the city. The stocks were used at Lichfield, twice 
in the year 1858, as a punishment for drunkenness; and a 
woman was put in the stocks, at Berwick-on-Tweed, about the 
year 1850. - The " Cage," and the Ducking-stool, at Salisbury, 
formerly stood in Milford-street f the " Pound" was in what 
we now call Love Lane f and from it the name of the chequer 
— " Pound Chequer"— is derived. 

The Market-place and some of the neighbouring streets 
were the scene of a smart skirmish between the royal and 
parliamentary troops, in 1645. Ludlow was at the time in 
possession of Salisbury, but Langford House was garrisoned 
by the royalists, and a body of royalists was approaching the 
city from the direction of Amesbury. As Ludlow rode down 
Winchester Street he, to use his own words, '' heard a great 
noise of the horses in the street that leads into the city from 
Old Sarum, which caused me to return to the Market-place, 
where, finding many of the enemy's horse, I went by the back 
side of the town through a street called the Ditch, ^ to my 
guard, which was drawn up in the Close." He afterwards 
returned with about thirty troopers, and, entering the Market- 
place through the narrow passage near the Poultry Cross, 
" where," he says, " we were forced to march one by one," he 
charged the enemy and routed them. " About a hundred of 
them," he continues, " ran through Winchester Gate^ to their 
main body, and about twice that number fled up a street called 
Endless Street, whom I pursuing my horse fell backwards with 
me by a check I gave him ; but my own men being in my 
rear, I soon recovered on horseback, and continued the pursuit 

^ "Notes and Queries," 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 396. 
2 For a very complete history of the pillory, see "The Reliquary," 
edited by Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., vol. i., pp. 209 — 224. See also 
"The Penny Cyclopedia," xviii, , 159. 

3 Naish's Map, d. 
'^ Ibid. This street formerly bore the name of Wynemand Street, it is 
mentioned under that name so early as in 1296. 

^ The Canal, ^ The Gate in Winchester Street was removed in 1767. 



The City Gates. — Satis bu7y. 15 

till I found the enemy to make a stand, the street, according 
to its name, being walled-up at the further end, and one of 
them, breaking back upon me and leaping the brook, but his 
horse losing his feet, threw him down ; and he, perceiving 
himself to be at my mercy, desired his life," which was granted. 
This prisoner proved to be Lieutenant-Colonel Middleton ; 
learning from him that the royalist force amounted to 900 
men, Ludlow deemed it prudent to retreat in the direction of 
Harnham. 

A rampart of earth was thrown up by the inhabitants of 
Salisbury, in 13 10, it was intended to protect the city on the 
land-side, and extended from river to river ; of this no trace now 
remains. Leland says of it : — " This diche was made of the 
tounes men at such tyme as Simon, Bishop of Saresbyri, gave 
licence to the burgeses to strengthen the toun with an em- 
battled wauUe. This diche was thoroughly caste for the defence 
of the toun, so far as it was not sufficiently defended by the 
mayne streame of Avofi. But the waulle was never begon ; 
yet, as I remembre, I saw one stone gate or 2 in the toun." 
Canon Jackson remarks upon this : — '^ Two gates in the 
Close. "^ Leland, however, describes the three gates in the 
Close, he says : — " the great and large embatelid waulle of the 
palace having 3 gates to entre it, thus namyd. The Close gate, 
as principale, by north into the toun, Sainct AntCs gate, by est : 
& Harnham gate, by south, toward Harnham Bridge." It is, 
therefore, probable that Leland's words are to be taken in their 
literal sense, and that he saw "one stone gate or 2 in the totm." 
We have seen that Ludlow drove some of the royalists through 
Winchester Gate, in 1645, so that this gate was standing about a 
century after Leland's visit, and indeed was not removed until 
1767. That Leland also saw " Castle Gate" seems certain, "for it 
lyith" on the way to " the castelle of Old Saresbyry," which he 
visited. Some remains of Castle Gate may be seen on the 
right-hand side as we pass up Castle Street, rather more than 
half-way up the street, the road-way becomes narrower at the 
spot where the gate stood ; up to Castle Gate the street was 
known as "Castle Street," beyond the gate as "Above Castle 
Gate."^ Mention is made of Castle Gate in the early part of 
the reign of Edward IV., it was removed in 1784. 



1 (( 



Wilts Mag.," vol. I, p. 159, note. " Naish's map l>. 



CHRONICLE OF EVENTS RELATING TO THE 
CITY OF NEW SARUM. 

Many of the events noted are of no historical importance, but 
nearly all possess a local interest. They are, chiefly, extracted 
from a work, published rather more than half a century ago,^ 
my copy of which is supplemented by my Father's extracts 
from the Corporation Ledgers, &c. This pamphlet may not be 
in the possession of many ; and to such the following extracts 
will possibly prove of interest ; arranged as they are it will be 
easy to turn over the pages unread, if the excursionist desires 
to pass on to the account of our first stopping-place — " Old 
Sarum." 

1227. Nicholas de Brookeby was elected the first Mayor, — Charter granted 
by Henry III. to mcorporate the city, dated January 30th, in the 
eleventh year of his reign, at Westminster. 

1278. Charter granted by Edward I. 

1 3 10. The Great Ditch was made for the defence of the city. It extended 
full four furlongs from the corner of St. Anne's Street, where it was 
connected with the river, either by another ditch or a wall, across 
Milford-street and Winchester-street, just without the old gate (re- 
moved in 1767), over Green Croft, where it remained almost perfect 
till the winter of 1769, when it was levelled by the poor of the city, 
at the expense of the owner of the College. It continued in a 
straight line northwards, across Mr. Wyndham's garden, where 
part of it is still to be seen (1824), to the upper corner of Swayne's 
Close, from thence it appears to have taken a direction due west, 
joining the cut behind Castle-street, above the turnpike-gate. 

1329. The Parliament sat in the city. 

1356. The Plague raged in the city. 

1370. The price of wheat at four pence, and barley two pence, the bushel. 
— Labour two pence a day. 

1378. The Parliament sat in the city. 

1382. The Parliament sat in the city. 

1384. The Town Ditch (the Canal) began to be made, but was never 
finished. A gallon of white wine sold for six pence, and a gallon 
of red wine for four pence. 

1 39 1. The Parliament sat in the city. 

143 1. The Spire of our Lady Church (the Cathedral) was set on Fire by 
lightning. 

1434. The gates of the city began to be built. 

1436. A cow sold in the market for one shilling, and a calf for one penny. 

1443. The city gates first erected. 

1450. The Bishop of Sarum was murdered at Edington by the Commons 
of Wiltshire, during the rebellion of Jack Cade. 



i( 



A Chronology of Remarkable Events relative to the City of New 
Sarum, &c., from 1227 to 1823," fifth edition, printed and published by 
J. Easton, Salisbury, 1824. 



Events 7'elatmg to Salisbury. 1 7 

1477. A wall erected round the Yarn-market Cross (Poultry Cross?) 

1485. The Duke of Buckingham taken at the Brew in Wales, and beheaded 
in the Market-place, for rebelling against Richard III. 

i486. Wheat three shillings the bushel. — Henry VII. came here, and was 
met by the Mayor and Corporation on Alderbury Common. 

1491. Wheat at one shilling and eight pence the bushel. 

1493. Wheat at four shillings the bushel. 

1503. Richard Smart was burned in the Market-place for resisting the 
doctrine of transubstantiation. 

1532. Wheat was ordered to be sold by weight. 

1541. Spencer, Rosny, and Hewet, burned in the Market-place, on account 
of their religious principles. 

1544. Good land let at one shilling per acre. 

1549. A great religious uproar on Harnham Hill. 

1555. Mandrell, Coverdale, and Spencer, were burned in Fisherton P'ields,. 
near the city, as martyrs in the cause of reUgion. 

1557. On the 5th of March, Lord Stourton was executed in the Market- 
place for the murder of Mr. Hartgill and his son. 

1563. The Plague was in the city. 

1569. The County Gaol in Fisherton Anger, near the city was finished. ^ 
It had remained at Old Sarum till the time of Heniy VII. 

1573. The Elm Tree in the Market-place was cut down in order to erect 
the Council-House on its site. 

1579. "The Council-House began to be built on the spot where the elm 
tree stood in the Market-place." I find against this an extract 
from the Corporation Ledger (C. fol. 58), in my father's hand- 
writing — " The first stone of the newe council Howse was layde in 
the north est corner of the same Howse by Mr. Christopher 
Weekes, Maior of Sarum, the Vlth day of July, 1579, and he also 
drave the first poste. " — The Plague in the street leading to St. 
Edmund, and the election of Mayor, in consequence, at St. 
Thomas Church (Nov. 2, 1579). 

1582. The Quarter Jacks at St. Thomas's Church were set up. 

1584. The Council House was finished. 

1594. A great dearth of corn, wheat being at nine shillings the bushel. 

'597- The dearth still continuing, wheat advanced to twelve shillings, and 
barley to seven shillings, the bushel. 

1603. James I. ascended the throne, and came to this city in progress ; 
and by reason of the plague in London, he, with his Queen and 
Prince Henry, spent seven weeks at Wilton House ; and fourteen 
days before Christmas returned to London. On the occasion of 
His Majesty's visit to the city, the Corporation presented a 
" Cuppe of silver, double gilted and covered, of the valew of 
twentie markes, or thereabouts, and twentie poundes in goulde 
therein, unto the King's Majestie ; a purse with twentie poundes 
in goulde therein to the Queene ; a purse with ten poundes in 
goulde to the Prince ; and one fatt oxe of the price of eight 
poundes to the Earle of Pembroke. The fower and twentie 
(Aldermen) apparelled in scarlet gownes, and the eight and 
iortie (Assistants), and others, apparelled in cittizens gownes 

^ This was the Old Gaol, near Fisherton Bridge, see Naish's Map. 

C 



1 8 Events relating to Salisbury. 

with their horses, and foot, and others, accompanyed Mr. Maior 
for the receipte of the King's Majestie." — The Bushel was set to 
the Standard. 

1604. The Plague raged again in the city. 

1608. A great scarcity of corn, 

1610. The Market-place paved and railed- 

1612. Charter granted (March 2nd) by James I. 

16 1 4. My father has again extracted from the Corporation Ledger (C. 243- 

244) the order for *' newe erectinge and settinge uppe a convenient 
place for the Judges and Justices to sytte at the tyme of the 
Assizes." Accordingly we find that in 

1615. The Council-House was enlarged on the east side. 

16^3. In the Corporation Ledger (C. 296) is the order for a ** footlifte" to 
be provided for the Mayor to ride to Church with the Judges 
(October 30). 

1625. The Green Croft was levelled. — The Coronation of Charles L pro- 
claimed. 

1627. The inhabitants again suffered from the Plague, of which died, from 
the 29th of November to the 17th of March following, three 
hundred and sixty-nine persons. Bugmore Houses made a pest- 
house. (Corporation Ledger C. 336.) 

1630. Charter granted (August 17th) by Charles I. 

1 63 1. At the summer assizes, a condemned felon threw a brick-bat at the 

Judge, Sir Thomas Richardson, Chief Justice of His Majesty's 
Court of Common Pleas ; which offence was immediately recorded, 
and judgment pronounced, that the culprit's right hand should be 
cut off, and fixed to the gibbet on which he was to be hanged ; and 
which sentence of amputation was then executed in open Court. 

1632. King Charles I. came to this city ; when a boy, fifteen years of age, 

was drawn, hanged, and quartered, for saying he would buy a pistol 
to kill the King. — Henry Sherfield, Esq., Recorder of the city, in 
a fit of enthusiasm, destroyed the fine painted window in St. 
Edmund's church, which represented the Six Days' Work of the 
Creation, by reason of several errors in point of chronology, for 
which he was summoned into, and tried in, the Star Chamber, 
Feb. 6th, and fined /"50a ^ 
1635. A great Flood. — Charles I. came here, 

1637, Avery great Flood. 

1638. Wheat at one shilling and threepence the bushel. 

1641. The spire of our Lady church was set on fire by lightning. 

1643. Prince Maurice, the Earl of Marlborough, and others of the King's 

forces, came to this city, and took the Mayor prisoner in his robes, 

for not assisting the King. 
1649. Coronation of Charles IL proclaimed. 
1653. On Sunday, June 26, the tower of St. Edmund's Church fell down 

just after the conclusion of the evening service. 
1655. Old Haley, the plumber, roasted a shoulder of mutton and a couple 

of fowls upon the top of our Lady spire. — An insurrection at the 

^ See " The Proceedings in the Star Chamber against Henry Sherfield, 
Esq.," &c., &c. London, printed and sold by S. Noble in Long- Walk, 
near Christ's-Hospital, &c., &c., 171 7. 



Eve?its relating to Salisbury. 19 

Assizes by Colonel Penruddocke and Major Grove, with many 
others, for the King ; they took away the Judges' commission, and 
carried Mr. Dove, the High Sheriff, to Blandford ; but they were 
soon dispersed by Cromwell's forces. Several were hanged here ; 
and Colonel Penruddocke, with Major Grove, were beheaded at 
Exeter. The warrant for their execution, and also the cap in which 
Colonel Penruddocke suffered, are preserved by Charles Penrud- 
docke, Esq., at Compton Park, near Salisbury. 

1656. The Charter of the city was renewed, for its loyalty, by Cromwell ; 

and a Sword, with a Cap of Maintenance, brought in. — The inha- 
bitants of the Close paid taxes to the city by Cromwell's order. 

1657. The Corporation was invested with authority to admit persons into 

St. Nicholas Hospital, at Harnham, near the city. 

1658. The Corn-Market was new railed, and a pillory set up. — Also a 

Whipping-Post erected near the Council-House. 
1660. Thomas Abbott, Mayor. The happy Restoration of King Charles 
n. proclaimed, which gave rise to the Salisbury proverb of his 
being "restored by a Monk, and proclaimed by an Abbott." — The 
Sword of State broken at the Whipping- Post.— The Council-House 
was broken open, and the Silver Chains taken away belonging to 
the Town Musicians. 

1665. King Charles H. and his Queen came here, in consequence of the 

Plague in London. Their Majesties went to Dogdean to see a 
football match ; they also ascended to the eight doors of our Lady 
church. — Two boys fell from the eight doors, and, pitching upon 
the leads of the church, were killed. 

1666. The Plague raged here from March to Christmas, and carried off 

about six hundred persons. It appears that this city has been 
afflicted with the Plague (perhaps typhus fever), no less than six 
times, viz.^ in 1556, 1563, 1579, 1604, 1627, 1666. Many of the 
inhabitants, in order to avoid the contagion, shut themselves up in 
their houses, thus effectually preventing any intercourse with their 
friends and neighbours, having, however, a small aperture cut in 
their doors to admit provisions, &c. ; an instance of which was to 
be seen in the street-door of Miss Botly, milliner. Silver-street, so 
late as the year 181 7, when the door was removed. According to 
an entry in the Corporation Ledger, the Mayor, this year, on 
account of the Plague in this city, was chosen in the Close, by a 
grant from the King. 

1670. The Bushel was cut. 

1672. The Cathedral church was set on fire by the carelessness of the 
plumber, but soon extinguished. 

1675. On the 13th of February, the Charter of the city was renewed by 
Charles II. — The river Avon began to be made navigable from 
Sarum to Christchurch, at the expense of the Bishop, the Mayor, 
and other gentlemen. A curious vellum book, containing a list of 
the subscribers, is preserved in the Muniment-room at the Council 
Chamber. 

1679. The Poor riotously broke the Cut Bushel. 

1 68 1. Two new maces were bought. 

1682. Bishop Ward founded a College in the Close for the widows of 

clergymen. 

C 2 



20 Events relating to Salisbury. 

1683. A very high wind, which threw down the butchers' shambles, in the 

Market-place. The Duke and Duchess of York, Prince George 
and Princess Anne, came to this city, and lodged at the Bishop's 
Palace. The City spent five hundred pounds on them, and their 
trained Bands waited on them during their three days' stay. 

1684. On the 23rd of December, the weather, particularly the snow, was 

so severe, that many persons perished by it returning from market. 

An account of this storm,^ perhaps the only original copy 
of the pamphlet extant, is preserved in the library of the Rev. 
Edward Duke, at Lake House. I give a few extracts : " On 
Tuesday, the 23rd of December, 1684, the weather being cold 
and freezing, there Hkewise happened a terrible, and certainly 
the most dreadful, storm hath in these nations been heard of 
in the memory of man. The carriers from London, to Exeter, 
Taunton, Shaftesbury, Bath, and Wells, &c., going as usually 
out from London on Saturday ; and particularly the 20th of 
December, 1684, and in pursuance of their respective journeys, 
being on Tuesday, the 23rd, with their horses and passengers, 
to pass the Downs on this side Salisbury ; such of them as 
escaped, do relate the manner of the storm in those parts to 
be as followeth, viz. That the wind being all day north-east, 
and violently cold, about two in the afternoon it began to snow 
very fast, and held on till two or three o'clock next morning, 
the wind continuing fierce, and blowing it in such heaps, that 
in some places the snow lay as high as a house-top, in others 
the ground scarcely covered ; which so altered the roads, espe- 
cially upon the Downs and Plains, that none of the said 
carriers could that night either find the way to their inns, or 
any towns where they might get shelter. 

Mr. Mathews, the carrier of Shaftesbury, had his unfor- 
tunate lot within fifty-six miles of London, two miles on this 
side Stockbridge ; who albeit he escaped with life, yet his 
hands are frozen up, that he hath lost the use of them, and 
two of his horses dyed with extremity of cold upon the Downs 
that very night. Mr. Collins, the Taunton carrier, and Mr. 
. . . . , the carrier to Bath and Wells, when first lost, 
judged they might want five or six miles of Amesbury. The 
Wells carrier had two of his company frozen to death, viz., his 
own son, a youth about thirteen or fourteen years of age ; and 
a young man, a passenger, aged about twenty years; which 

^ London : printed by George Larkin, at the Lower-End of Broad- 
treet, next to London-Wall, 1685. 



Events 7'elating to Salisbury. 21 

persons were not parted from the rest, or smoothered in the 
snow, but absolutely frozen to death, as they rode or walked 
along in company. This distressed carrier's bowels yearning 
when he saw his son grow stiff, and faint, got him up, and 
carried him till he dyed in his arms, and after he was dead 
carried him on horseback ; until extremity of cold forced him 
to let him drop upon the Down and leave him. 

Neither had Mr. Collins, who carries to Taunton and 
Tiverton less misfortune ; a man and his wife, two hearty 
antient people, being of his passengers, and riding on single 
horses, although very healthful and well in the morning, and 
chearful in the afternoon, yet by the continued cold and 
stragling of the poor horses, or by their own growing feeble 
to manage them, lost sight of the gang, and wandred by them- 
selves, till at length they lay down and dyed, one at the feet 
of the other. 

Mr. Collins himself and servants, when within three miles of 
Amesbury, hapned upon a parish where they hired a guide for 
ten shilUngs, who undertook to lead their bell horse, and con- 
ducted them a mile and a half of the three ; when, going 
faster than they could follow, Mr. Collins beg'd of him for 
God's sake to go no faster than they were able to come with 
the other horses. 

But the guide, alledging his own life was in danger, kept on 
his pace, and got safe to the Bear Inn, at Amesbury, by nine 
o'clock at night ; Mr. Collins, his servants and horses wander- 
ing till six in the morning, and then discovering an old barn, 
broke into it for shelter till day -light, one of his said servants 
is like to loose the use of his limbs, and Mr. Collins with 
the rest, meerly (under God) by violent labour and busling 
saved their lives." 

Several other instances of death, from cold, during this storm, 
are mentioned in the pamphlet from which I have quoted.^ 

1686. March 7th, a Charter granted to the City by James II. 

1688. The Mayor (Mr. George Clemence) was removed from his office, 
and Mr. Parsons appointed in his room ; also several of the Corpo- 
ration vi^ere removed, on account of their political principles at the 
time of the Revolution, but were soon restored again, — ^James 11. 
came to Sarum with his army, to oppose the Prince of Orange, but 
soon returned to London. On the 3rd of December, the Prince of 
Orange arrived from Torbay, and marched on for London. — The 

^ It was re-printed by Brodie, (Salisbury) in 1841. 



22 Events relating to Salisbiiiy. 

Crown on the top of the Council-house fell down. — Sept. 15, a 
Charter granted by James II., but this, with the Charter granted 
in 1686, was by proclamation, dated Oct. 17, 1688, called in and 
annulled. 

1689. A great scarcity of wheat, being at ten shillings the bushel. 

1695. A census taken — 6678 inhabitants. 

1697. Mary Doman did penance in St. Edmund's Church. 

1 704. On the 26th of November, a terrible Tempest of wind arose, which 
blew down the greater part of the large trees in the Close, and did 
great damage to the city, Close, and Cathedral church. 

1707, A Charter granted to the city by Queen Anne. 

1709. The Public Houses of the city were reduced to forty, which before 

were sixty. — Wheat at ten shillings, and barley at five shillings, 
the bushel. 

1 7 10. A new organ was erected in the Cathedral church by Mr. Renatus 

Harris. 

171 1. The Poultry-Cross repaired and beautified. 

1713. The 1 2th of May, Peace was proclaimed in this city between Great 
Britain and France. July the 17th, an ox was roasted whole in 
the Market-place, being a day appointed for a public thanksgiving. 

1723. Inoculation for the Small Pox first used in this city, which was then 

very hot. Out of thirteen huudred persons who caught the infec- 
tion, one hundred and seventy died ; and out of one hundred who 
were inoculated, only one died. 

1724. A very great Flood in February. — The Cathedral church was set 

on fire, at the west end, by the carelessness of the plumber, but 
soon extinguished. 

1726. The greatest Flood ever known in the city ; the water having risen 
so rapidly in the Cathedral church during divine service, that a 
pulpit was erected in the Choir to preach, the water being nearly 
a foot high in the body of the church. At this period, Prayers 
were read in the Choir, and the Sermon preached in the body of 
the church. 

1742. The spire of the Cathedral church caught fire by lightning. 

1758. The vane of the Cathedral church fell from the top of the spire. — 
The Steeple of the belfry in the Close was taken down. — The Bath 
Stage Waggon, with its valuable lading, was burnt on Salisbury 
Plain, by the wheels taking fire. 

1762. On placing a new Copper Vane on the spire of the Cathedral church, 
the workmen discovered in a cavity of the capstone, a small round 
leaden box, and within it a neat wooden one, containing only the 
remains of a piece of silk, or fine cloth, decayed almost to tinder ; 
supposed to be a relic relating to the Virgin Mary, to whom the 
Cathedral is dedicated. 

1767. The new Infirmary commenced ; the Duke of Queensberry, the 
Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Radnor, laid the foundation 
stone. 

1 77 1. This year were discovered in the gardens of the College, the 
mouldering bones of nearly thirty bodies, some central pieces of 
ancient shields made of iron with thin brass bandages fixed to 
them ; an iron sword, and the heads of several pikes of the same 
metal. The iron was much corroded, and easily crumbled between 



Events i-elating to Salisbury. 23 

the fingers, whilst the brass was as pure and perfect as when first 
composed. It is supposed that these are the remains of a battle 
fought between Cynric, King of the West Saxons, and the Britons ; 
who were, after a bloody slaughter on both sides, defeated by him 
in the year 552, and brought into his possession the capital British 
fortress of Sorbiodunum, now called Old Sarum. 

1778. The bells belonging to the Cathedral church were taken from the 
adjacent belfry, beaten to pieces, and sold, previous to the removal 
of the Belfry itself ; and the Choir of the Cathedral church was 
enlarged. 

1 78 1. The Mayor having given his customary entertainment in the Council- 
House upon the occasion of being sworn into office, the i6th 
November, 1 780 ; the following morning early, and soon after the 
company were departed, a fire broke out in the attic story, which 
raged with great fury, and completely destroyed that part of the 
building ; but by the very prompt exertions of the inhabitants, the 
progress of that all devouring element was happily checked without 
further mischief, though its awful ravages at one period threatened 
the whole pile with total destruction. 

178S. The new Council-House was commenced, on the site of the old 
Guildhall, the foundation stone was laid by the Mayor (Mr. 
Edward Hinxman), on the i6th of September. 

1795. The new Council-House was completed on the 23rd of September. 
The whole building was at the expense of the Earl of Radnor, 
Recorder of the city, who made this munificent present to the 
Corporation. 

1823. The Corn-Market was removed from the middle of the Market- 
place, to the open space within the rails in front of the Council- 
House. — In the afternoon of Saturday, the first of November, the 
parish of Fisherton, as well as several of the principal streets of 
the city, became suddenly inundated with the greatest Flood the 
oldest inhabitants could possibly remember, occasioned by very 
tempestuous weather of wind, snow, and rain ; the water in 
Fisherton having, in some houses, been so high as three feet, and 
in the high-road considerably higher. At the Bull inn, the water 
reached the uppermost part of the kitchen dresser, and floated an 
eight -hogshead cask in the cellar. About nine or ten o'clock it 
began to subside. The high-road, however, continued impassable 
for pedestrians until Monday afternoon. 

1 84 1. About five o'clock in the evening of Saturday the 1 6th of January 
there was a great flood, caused by the melting of snow from an 
unusually-sudden thaw ; unfortunately, the ground was so deeply 
frozen that none of the water was absorbed. 

The south-western portion of the Close presented, on Sun- 
day morning, the appearance of a large and unbroken sheet of 
water, which extended to the doors of the Cathedral, so that it 
was found impossible to hold the service. The water flowed 
freely through most of the houses in the Close, and I had to 
enter the King's House (now the Diocesan Training School) 



24 



Old Sarum. 



by means of a bridge of planks ; and was unable to reach my 
grandmother's house on the Canal without wading through the 
water, Fisherton-street was impassable for foot passengers for 
two days, most of the residents constructed dams at their 
doors ; and, on Monday (January i8), as my Father and I 
drove along Fisherton-street, on our way to Shrewton, the 
water was even then above the axles of the wheels. 




Fig. 4. Old Sarum. 

OLD SARUM. 

This is a very remarkable place ; in some respects the most 
noteworthy in Britain. Selected at a remote period and fortified 
with appliances of a simple character, it was the principal 
stronghold of a district very rich in military earthworks j and 
at one time was the resort of those inhabitants whose huts or 
wigwams, and the symbols of their superstition, covered the 
adjacent downs ; and whose sepulchral monuments (ascending 
to the Stone Age) point, by their contents, to a primitive, and 
by their number, to a long-continued population. The earlier 



Description of Old Sarum. 



25 



and later Britons, Celtic or Belgic tribes ; the Romans ; and the 
English ; have each left us traces of their rule. The Celt, 
partly in the fragments of an ancient nomenclature, but chiefly 
in ' material works, curious and grand, but which are in no 
way connected with the later inhabitants of the country ; the 
Romans, in those marvellous public ways, many of which are 
still in use ; and the English, in those names, boundaries, and 
customs, which are associated with our religion, our laws, and 
our civilization. 

Nevertheless, the mound of Old Sarum is a spot on which the 
descendant of the Welsh-speaking Britons has a peculiar right 
to feel pride. All around it savours of the remote antiquity of 
his race. The Norman fortress, the city, the cathedral church, 
have all vanished ; their very ruins have perished, and the 
knowledge of their arrangements has only been recovered by 
the accident of a rainless summer. Even the traces of Roman 
and English residence within the vast inclosure are uncertain 
and obscure. The bare and gaunt banks and mounds, the 
skeleton of the past life, are all that is left, and here, as at 
Stonehenge, the memory of the Briton is once more pre- 
dominant. 

Old Sarum is a rudely circular and concentric earthwork of 
unusual height and area, and of more historic celebrity than 
is attached to any other mere bank of earth in Britain, how- 
ever stupendous. Moreover, though really as much a natural 
knoll of chalk as Windsor, its sharp outline and obviously 
artificial finish invest it, to the ordinary observer, with the 
character of a work of man ; and thus prodigiously enhance 




SCALE 500 F-»'TOTHE INCH. 

Fig. 5. Section of Old Sarum. 

the admiration with which it is wont to be regarded. Old 
Sarum is really a knoll of the upper and flint-bearing chalk 
series ; of which advantage has been taken to scarp and 
elevate the highest and central part into a steep flat-topped 
mound, (A on Fig. 6) round which is excavated a formidable 
ditch, very broad and very deep. The section, Fig. 5, shows 



26 



Description' of Ohf Sarinn. 



what nature, as well as man, has done at Old Sarum. Beyond the 
ditch is a broad and comparatively level annular area, sloping 
slightly from the centre (B on Fig. 6) and in its turn girdled by 
a second and still more formidable ditch. Of this the counter- 
scarp is a steep bank, outside of and beyond which is the 
natural slope of the base of the hill ; forming what, in military 
phrase, would be the glacis of the place, and which on three 



SCALE 

?: CO rt-ro THE INCH 




Fig. 6. Plan of Old Sabum. 



A. Keep or Inner Ward. 

B. Outer Ward. 

C. Main Entrance. 

D. West Gate. 



E. Cathedral and Cloisters. 

F. Precinct of the Burgh. 

G. Church of the Holt Cross. 
H. Great Well. 



Description of Old Sarum. 27 

sides descends into the ordinary valleys of the district, but to 
the west is continued downwards until it dies into the meads 
of Stratford. The whole height of the knoll above the river 
(Avon) may be 300 feet, and perhaps 200 feet above the other 
valleys, and the fortified area is above 27 acres; so that the 
fortress is one of great strength and magnitude. 

Commencing with the interior, the central mound (A Fig. 
6) is, at its top, about 500 feet across. The sides are as steep 
as the rubbly chalk soil will allow, and the material, removed 
in scarping, seems to have been in part placed on the crest of 
the scarp, so as to raise the edge of the mound by an artificial 
bank, this bank rises to the height of about 20 feet above the 
central platform. This bank, or parapet, is about 100 feet 
above the bottom of the ditch, and about half that height 
above the level of the counterscarp. The ditch is about, at 
its broadest, 150 feet. This ditch was the inner fosse of the 
fortress, and surrounded its Keep or Inner Ward, or the castle 
proper. 

The annular space beyond formed the Outer Ward (B Fig. 
6), the girth of which was about 1,500 yards, and within 
which were the city and cathedral (E Fig. 6). This ward is 
not quite circular, but measuring from the inner to the outer 
ditch, averages about 370 feet. It is parted nearly equally on 
the north side by a bank, and on the south by a bank and 
ditch, the former being on the eastern side. These run as 
radial lines, but do not reach the interior ditch, neither does 
the cross ditch communicate with the exterior one. In fact 
the cross ditch, in its breadth, depth, and irregularity, much 
resembles a quarry : and very probably was opened to supply 
material for the hearting or substance of the castle walls. 
Besides these is another bank, pointing to the south-east, so 
that the whole area is divided into three sections, of which 
two lie in the eastern half Of course, the object of these 
banks was to shut in the church, and to prevent the whole 
Outer Wall being taken by a coup de mai7i. They are all 
evidently additions to the circular works, and probably of the 
Norman period. With these exceptions the surface of this 
ward is nearly level, but round its outer edge runs a low bank, 
and in places, in its rear, a slight ditch, no doubt caused by 
the removal of the wall. 

Outside this ward is the outer ditch, about 106 feet deep 
from the crest, and about 150 feet broad. The bank, which 



2'8 Remains of Masonry. — Old Sarmn. 

forms the outer edge of this ditch was evidently formed from 
its contents. It is about 40 feet above the bottom of the 
ditch, and about 15 feet above the level outside, and it is very 
steep. This forms the outer line of defence, and in modern 
warfare would be considered a weakness, as affording cover to 
the assailants. 

Thus the fortress is composed of an inner or castle ward, 
(A in Fig 6), and an outer or city ward (B), with a bank and 
ditch defending each ; and a third bank beyond and on the 
edge of the outer ditch. The outer ditch and bank are those 
attributed to Alfred. The diameter of the whole place is a 
mean of 1700 feet. 

There are two entrances into the outer ward, (C) from the 
east-south-east, and (D) from the west-north-west, nearly oppo- 
site. These are formed by a direct cross-cut through the 
outer bank, and the filling up the ditch so as to carry a road- 
way, which enters the outer ward in a cutting, as a hollow way. 
At the eastern or main entrance (C) this way is shallow, and 
speedily dies out ; but at (D) the western (called the Postern) 
entrance (though narrow), the roadway is much deeper, and 
runs far into the ward. In each case, the way forks at the 
outer bank, and in the angle is placed a barbican of earth, 
a sort of cavalier, commanding both branches of the road, as 
well as their combination. The eastern work is nearly rect- 
angular, sharply defined, and has an independent ditch of 
its own towards the field. It is probably, in its present form, 
Norman. The original entrances seem to have been here, but 
the present arrangement is evidently late, and possibly alto- 
gether Norman. 

The Inner Ward has but one, an eastern, entrance, opposite 
to that of the Outer Ward. This also is formed by a notch 
cut in the scarp, the ditch being filled up to carry a foot-way. 
This must also have been very steep. It was evidently always 
the entrance, the bank elsewhere being uncut. Fragments of 
masonry show it, in its present form (a bridge being substi- 
tuted for the causeway) to have been the entrance to the 
Norman Castle. 

At the entrance to the Inner Ward, on the scarp, are two 
masses of chalk-flint rubble, with occasional blocks or lumps 
of sarsen stone (and pieces of stone from the Upper Green- 
sand), evidently the core of a gate-house and contiguous 
curtain once faced with ashlar. The enceinte wall seems to 



Remains of Masonry. — Old Sarum. 29 

have crested the mound all round, the present bank forming a 
'ramp behind it. In the enclosure, on the north side are lines 
of foundation, obviously those of the principal buildings ; and 
opposite is a bold depression in the soil, no doubt marking the 
place of the well (H on Fig. 6), which must have been deep, 
and was possibly large. The filling up of the ditch at the 
entrance is clearly modern. 

This central mound may be original, but it is rather more 
probable that the British work resembled Badbury, which has 
no central citadel, and that this latter wa"s added, and the ditch 
excavated in the eighth or ninth century, to make a fortified 
residence for the English Lord. This, however, must always 
be mere speculation. By whomsoever made, the Normans 
found the mound here, and built upon it a shell, of which the 
ditch was the defence, and the interior bank the camp. 

The outer lump of masonry is on the line of the wall of the 
city ward, towards the north-east, marked with a line on Fig. 
6. This is part of the curtain-wall of the city, and measures 
about 10 feet thick, 12 feet high, and 25 feet long. It is 
pierced by two holes 18 inches high by 12 inches broad, placed 
about 6 feet apart and 8 feet from the ground. They seem 
to have carried two beams, for what purpose it is vain to con- 
jecture. The fragment is of chalk-flint rubble, with occasional 
chain courses of sarsen stone, rudely dressed. The inner face 
of the wall retains its original facing of dressed sarsen ashlar. 
Though placed, as indeed with such a weight, was prudent, 3 
or 4 feet within the edge of the ditch, it was evidently a part 
of the general enceinte wall, described as having been 12 feet 
thick, and strengthened with twelve towers.^ This could not 
have been less than 20 feet high, and about 1,566 yards long, 
a prodigious work, even without considering the radial walls 
dividing the city from the cathedral. 

Besides these works, there was discovered, in 1795, a curious 
subterranean passage, which passed from the north-west quarter 
of the Outer Ward, outwards, towards the eastern ditch. It 
was cut in the chalk, 7 feet broad and from 7 to 10 feet high, 
the sides were found still to bear marks of the tool. The 
entrance had columns and door-jambs, evidently Norman ; the 
roof was round-headed, probably artificial, as it is described as 
being only about two feet below the surface. There were steps 

^ Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., however, is of opinion that this fragment is 
Roman, and formed part of a rectangular building. 



30 The Cathedral. — Old Sarum. 

cut in the chalk, and but little worn. It was followed 114 feet, 
and there found to be choked up with rubbish. No doubt this 
was a private postern, opening on the glacis or in the ditch, such 
as exist at Windsor and in other fortresses on the chalk. 

It may be observed, with respect to the outer defences, which 
have been attributed to Alfred, that they have the peculiarity 
of a high bank outside the ditch, very unusual in Celtic camps. 
Probably all Alfred did was to deepen this ditch, and throw up 
the outer bank \ and probably also all the ditches were again 
scarped and deepened when the Norman city wall was built. 

During the long drought of 1834, a very interesting disco- 
very was made at Old Saram. The Outer Ward was at that 
time laid down in grass, and upon this was to be seen in brown 
outline the plan of the old cathedral, E on Fig. 6. It was 
placed in the north-west quarter, between the secret passage 
and the west gate. The plan was a plain cross, 270 feet long 
by 150 feet broad, with a flat east end : the chapter-house was 
formed by an additional bay at the north end of the north 
transept, see Fig. 7. There were double aisles to nave, choir, 
and transepts. On removing the soil the foundations were 
seen, and in them a cavity, probably the grave of Bishop 
Osmund, the founder, On the north side of the choir was a 
square of 140 feet, the site of the cloisters. Here were found 
also burial-grounds for clergy and laity. ^ 

The excavations upon the site of the old cathedral were 
conducted by the late Mr. Hatcher and the late Mr. Fisher ; 
a very good account of the dimensions of the building and 
other details is to be found in Brown's " Illustrated Guide to 
Old Sarum and Stonehenge," from which the plan shown in 
Fig. 7 is taken. There was a large Galilee porch set 
between two western towers; the nave was 150 feet long by 
72 feet broad ; the transept 150 feet by 70 feet ; and the choir 
60 feet long. On the north side of the transept was an oblong 
Chapter House, and on the west side of the north arm were 
a Sacristy and Treasury. Of the style and architectural 
ornaments of the church some idea may be formed, inasmuch 
as many fragments of sculptured stone, which had formed 
part of the old cathedral, are to be seen built into the western 
wall of the Close, in Exeter Street (Salisbury), below St. Ann's 
Gate. Some of these may have adorned the faces of the 

1 G. T. Clark, "The Earthworks of the Wiltshire Avon," in " Archaeol. 
Journ.," vol. xxxii,, pp. 290 — 309. 



32 Roman Roads leading to Old Sarum. 

great arches ; many of the desigrfs consist of quatrefoils and 
rosettes ; another variety is ornamented with small arches, 
having nail-head mouldings ; there are also fragments of a 
kind of twisted moulding, such as is frequently to be seen as a 
border to the windows of Norman buildings. 

" It is certain that the greater part of the earth-works at Old 
Sarum are of prae-Roman origin, and that Sorbiodunum is the 
Latinized form of the British name — dim or dunum, denoting 
an 'eminence.' That the fortress on this spot is the Sor- 
biodunum of Antoninus is very probable indeed."^ The earth- 
works have been strengthened by successive conquerors or 
possessors until, from a mere hill-fort, the place became a 
strongly fortified mediaeval city. In its general form, however, 
following the lines of the hill upon which it is placed, Old 
Sarum is but an improved Ogbury, its original plan of defence 
has been modified and improved, but not changed. 

Why was Old Sarum retained as a defensive position when 
so many other camps — such as Ogbury, Chlorus' Camp, and 
Clearbury (the two last within sight) were abandoned ? Per- 
haps this was due, in part at least, to the circumstance that 
Old Sarum laid in the direct line of traffic in early times ; as 
many as six Roman roads are said to have led to Old Sarum, 
and, possibly, these roads only followed the lines of still earlier 
British trackways. Of the three Roman roads that entered by 
the eastern approach to Old Sarum, two are still very distinctly 
to be traced. One crossed the Bourne at the village of Ford, 
and passed by way of Bossington to Winchester ; the other led 
to Silchester, and may be seen running parallel to the South- 
western Railway, between Idmiston and Grately, for a distance 
of about four miles. The third road crossed the Avon at 
Stratford, crept up the opposite hill, passed near Bemerton 
Church, forded the Wyly by the Parsonage Barn, proceeded 
over the Hare-warren to Stratford Tony, Woodyates Inn, and 
Badbury, to Dorchester. A fourth road is said to have passed 
northward to the Roman station of Cunetio, near Marlborough. 
A fifth went to the north-east byway of the camps of Yarnbury, 
Scratchbury, and Battlesbury, to Bath ; and a sixth passed 
southward to Ilchester.^ It is, however, very curious that so 

^ Clark, /. c, p. 298. 
^ Dr. Guest, however, lays down but four roads — to Winchester, to 
Silchester, a western road to the Severn traversing the great ridge wood, 
and that called Atchling Ditch, which leads direct to Badbury rings, near 
Wimborne, 



Palaeolithic Implement found at Old Sariim, 



ZZ 



few indications of Roman habitation occur near Old Sarum ; 
beyond a few coins and other trifles, nothing whatever has been 
found within the fortress, and but very Httle in its suburbs. 
This remark, however, applies with equal force to relics of the 
still earlier races — the people of the Stone Age and of the 
Bronze Age. The palaeolithic implement, shown in Fig 8, 
was found on the northern side of the Outer Ward at Old 
Sarum, Oct. 2, 1872, by Miss Adeline King, daughter of the 
Rev. C. King, vicar of Stratford. It is now preserved in the 
Blackmore Collection, to which it was presented by Miss A. 




Fig. 8. Paleolithic Implement, found at Old Sarum. 

King. If this implement could be proved to have been 
fashioned by any occupier of Old Sarum, a very high antiquity 
indeed might be claimed for this ancient fortress. Of course, 
however, this is out of the question. It is probable that the 
implement was taken to Old Sarum with other flints, and it 
may even have been built into the walls of the old city. At 
all events, I am not aware that there is any deposit at Old 
Sarum itself, from which it could have been derived, although 
it might have been brought from beds, close at hand, at 
Stratford. m^ 

"■ What the Belgae did with Sorbiodunum during the century 

D 



34 Events relating to Old Sariini. 

and a half of their occupation, is unknown. This period of 
the history of our island is obscure, and yet to it has been 
attributed, by Mr. Fergusson, the adjacent monument of 
Stonehenge ; the work, at least in its present form, of a people 
accustomed to the use of tools of metal,^ and with some notion 
of construction and of architectural effect. Sorbiodunum, re- 
corded as Seoresbyrig, or Searbyrig, which Sir R. Hoare rather 
happily suggests, may mean the ' dry,' or ' waterless city,' 
played a part in the Belgic and Saxon struggles. In 552, 
Cynric, king of Wessex, no inconsiderable leader of the ' aspera 
gens Saxo,' here conquered the Britons,"^ and obtained posses- 
sion of Old Sarum. 

In the early part of the eighth century, Ina, King of the 
West Saxons, endowed the Church of St. James, in Saresbyrig, 
with lands ; and his consort, Ethelburga, made a similar grant 
to the nuns, serving God in the Church of St. Mary, in Saris- 
byrig. 

871. The outer intrenchment is supposed to have been 
added, in this year, by Alfred, within a month after which he 
fought a great battle with the Danes at Wilton. The order 
given to Leofric, Earl of Wiltshire, runs thus : — " I, Alfred, 
King and Monarch of the English, have ordered Leofric of 
Wiltunshire, not only to preserve the Castle of Sarum, but to 
make another ditch to be defended by palisadoes ; and all who 
live about the said castle, as well as my other subjects, are 
immediately to apply to this work." 

960. ^dgar convoked a witangemote at Old Sarum, to 
devise means for the defence of Northumberland against the 
invasion of the Danes. 

1003. Svein, father of Cnut, in revenge for the massacre 
of the Danes in the preceding year, made a descent upon the 
southern coast, and ravaged the country as far as Wilton and 
Old Sarum, both of which places he is said to have burnt, and 
then to have retreated to his ships. 

1036. In this year Cnut died at Old Sarum. 

Finally, the place seems to have become a royal demesne of 
the Confessor, being so recorded in Domesday. 

Before passing on to the establishment of Norman rule at 
Old Sarum, it may be interesting to mention that, here Wulf- 

^ The Belgoe were in their bronze age ; but it is not proved, as yet, that 
metallic tools were employed in the construction of Stonehenge. 

^ Clark, /. c. p. 298. 



Events relating to Old Sarum. 35 

noth, brother of King Harold, "the last of the Saxons," closed 
his sorrowful life as a cowled monk. In his youth, he had 
been delivered by his father (Earl Godwin) as a hostage to the 
Confessor; who, for greater security committed him to the 
custody of William of Normandy, in whose Court he remained 
for many years a prisoner. On the overthrow of Harold, and 
the establishment of the Norman dynasty, Wulfnoth only ob- 
tained his liberty by becoming a monk, and as such died at 
Old Sarum. 

" The Norman history of Old Sarum is an occupation of the 
older fortress, and the foundation of the early city. The in- 
vaders disturbed as little as possible the existing tenures and 
boundaries ; they placed ' themselves in the English seats of 
property, and from them administered the old estates. The 
defences alone were often changed. To walls of wattle or 
rude masonry, and stockades of timber, succeeded works in 
substantial masonry, and all the newly invented appliances of 
a Norman fortress. At the time of Domesday, the Conqueror 
held some rents here ; but the manor, a large one, w^as in the 
Bishop, a very important person ; and, as being such, it may be 
well for us to glance at the principal circumstances connected 
with the establishment of the episcopal seat at Sarum. 

The see of Wessex was founded by Birinus, in 634. It was 
subdivided, in 705, into the Bishopric of Winton and the 
Bishopric of Sherborn. In 905 — 9, five sees were created in 
the West Saxon Kingdom, to which a sixth, that of Wilton or 
Wiltshire, was shortly afterwards added, the episcopal seat of 
which was at Ramsbury. After an ineffectual attempt, in 1055, 
to remove this to Malmsbury; Bishop Herman, in 1075 — 8, 
with the consent of the King, combined Ramsbury with Sher- 
borne, and translated the seat to Sarum. 

1078. Herman, the first Bishop of Sarum, laid the foun- 
dation of the cathedral, which was completed, or nearly so, by 
his successor, Osmund de Seez, Earl of Dorset and Lord 
Chancellor, a nephew of William the Conqueror ; who, being 
a wealthy baron in England and Normandy, endowed it richly 
by charter, in 1091, the year before its consecration. "Part of 
the land is described as 'ante portam castelli seriberiensis 
terram ex utraque parte viae in ortorum domorumque canoni- 
corum necessitate.' The gate referred to is that of the Inner 
Wards the canons' houses having been on the Outer. There 
was thus a castle twenty-five years after the Conquest ; but 

D 2 



36 Consecratio7i of Cathedral. — Old Sarum. 

whether it was a Norman structure or that left by the English 
is uncertain, probably something of both." It was at Old 
Sarum that Bishop Osmund arranged the celebrated ordinary 
for " the use of Sarum." 

1086. William (ist) was at Old Sarum in this year, and at 
Lammastide met his Witan in the celebrated Gemote which 
has been thus described. " Here in the vast open plain about 
the fortress assembled a host reputed at 60,000 men, com* 
posed of ' all the landowners who were of account over all 
England, be they the men of what man they might, and they 
all submitted to him, and were his men, and swore to him 
oaths of fealty, that they would be faithful to him against all 
other men,' an oath by which the great King broke down the 
intermediate power of the nobles, and, with that sagacity 
which in him was intuitive, avoided the rock on which the two 
great monarchies of the continent were destined to make 
shipwreck."^ 

1092. On the 5th of April in this year, the Cathedral of 
Old Sarum, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, was consecrated 
by Osmund, assisted by Walkeline, Bishop of Winchester, and 
John, Bishop of Bath. Leland writes : — " Osmund, Erie of 
Dorchestre, and after Bishop of Saresbyri erectid his Cathedrale 
Chirch ther (i.e., in Old-Saresbyri) in the west part of the 
town ; and also his palace, whereof now no token is, but only 
a chapel of our Lady yet standing and mainteynid." On the 
fifth day after the consecration of the cathedral, the tower was 
seriously injured by lightning. Roger, Osmund's successor. 
Justiciary of England and Treasurer, is said to have walled in 
the outer enclosure between 1102 and 1139. Old Sarum 
seems to have attained the height of its prosperity under 
Bishop Roger, who, like his predecessor, obtained the custody 
of the fortress. Unscrupulous and avaricious, Bishop Roger 
affords a typical example of the feudal Churchman, at a time 
when the Anglo-Norman Bishops were barons rather than 
prelates, when their palaces were castles, and their retainers 
vassals-in-arms. " Whatever he desired," says William of 
Malmesbury, "if it was not to be had by payment, was seized 
by force." Roger built the castles of Devizes and Sherborne. 

1096. William Rufus was here in this year to meet his 
Council, and decide upon the celebrated wager of battle in 
which William, Earl of Eu, was worsted and tortured to death. 

^ Clark, /. c. p. 300. 



Coins minted at Old Sarwiu. 37 

About this period a change appears to have taken place in 
the name of the ancient city. In the early periods of our 
history, the money which circulated throughout the kingdom 
was struck at various towns, to which the privilege was granted 
by the sovereign. Comparatively few towns in Wiltshire have 
been the sites of mints, but among them is Old Sarum ; 
although there are no written records to prove this, the 
evidence is that furnished by existing coins. The earliest 
known Sarum minted coins are of the reign of Ethelred II., 
(978 — 1016). On these the name of the city is written 
SEARBE ; on the coins of Cnut the name is written SAEBER, 
SEBER, SER, SERE. No coins of the Confessor or of 
Harold, minted at Old Sarum, are known. Upon the coins 
of William I. and II. the name of the city is spelt SERE, 
S^R, S^RI, SERB, SERBR, SERBIR, SERBRI, S^RB, 
SvEREB, StERBI. All of these are evident contractions of 
Seoresbyrig or Searbyrig, the names by which it was known to 
the Saxons. It is not until the time of Stephen that we find 
the first appearance of the modern name of the city, the 
inscription occurs upon a coin, preserved in the British 
Museum, and is SALIS. Upon coins of Henry II. the name 
of the place is indicated by the letters SAL, SALE, and 
SALER, all according with the modern orthography. After 
this period, the name of Salisbury does not occur upon any 
coins, nor is there any reason to suppose that a mint was ever 
worked at Salisbury at any later period, except, perhaps, during 
the troublous period of Charles I.^ 

1 100 and 1 106. In these years, Henry I. held his court at 
Old Sarum. 

1 1 16. Henry I. assembled his nobles here, and made them 
swear to recognise Prince William as his successor. 

During the civil wars of Stephen, Bishop Roger was dis- 
graced, and is said to have died of grief. 

1 154. At this time the castle was held by Henry II., it was 
in a ruined condition, and considerable sums were expended in 
repairing it. 

Maude created Patrick (son of Edward de Sarisburie) Earl 
of Salisbury, and probably invested him with the Government 
of the castle ; he died in 1167. In 1164 — 5, the Bishop was 
lord of the manor, and under him were thirty-three knights 

^Hawkins, "Notices of the Mints of Wiltshire," in Salisbury Vol. 
Archeol Inst,, pp. 237 — 239. 



3 8 Removal of the Cathedral. — Old Sarum . 

under the old feoffment, and three under the new. Earl 
Patrick held two knight fees, and a third by the tenure of 
guarding the castle. 

^'So long as the Bishops held the castle, either indepen- 
dently or for the Crown, the position of the Cathedral was 
sufficiently secure, but when lay castellans took their place, 
and were men powerful enough to ill-treat their neighbours, 
the clergy began to suffer, and to make the most of the natural 
disadvantage of so high and exposed a situation. They suffered 
' ob insolentiam militis et ob penuriam aquae' ; the church was 
' Castro comitis vicina,' and the vicinity was unpleasant. 

"Under Bishop Herbert ie Poer, who succeeded in 1194, 
the disputes between the soldiers and the clergy reached their" 
height, and he decided to remove the cathedral to a spot of 
ground near the -confluence of the Wyly and the Nadder with 
the Avon, rather more than a mile distant from Old Sarum. "^ 

According to one tradition, the site of the new cathedral 
was determined by where an arrow, shot from the ramparts of 
Old Sarum, should fall ; according to another tradition, the 
site was revealed to Bishop le Poer, in a dream, by the Blessed 
Virgin herself. Leland writes of the removal to New Sarum 
in these words : — " Sum think that lak of water caussid the 
inhabitants to relinquish the place j yet were ther many welles 
of swete water. Sum say, that after that in tyme of civil 
warres that castles and waullid towns were kept, that the 
castellanes of Old-Saresbyri and the chanons could not agree, 
insomuch that the castellanes upon a time prohibited them, 
coming home from Procession and Rogation, to re-entre the 
toun. Whereupon the bishop and they consulting together, at 
the last began a chirch on his oun proper soyle ; and then the 
people resorted strait to Neiv-Saresbyri and buildid ther : and 
then, in continuance, were a great number of the houses of 
Old-Saresbyri pulled down and set up at Nezv-Saresbyri.^'' 

Merefield, a marshy spot but with an excellent foundation, 
was granted by Richard I. for the site of the new cathedral. 
Bishop Herbert died in 12 19, but his successor and natural 
brother, Richard le Poer, obtained from Honorius III. the 
Bull necessary for the translation, in which the causes for the 
removal are set forth. 

1220. On the festival of St, VitaHs (April 28) in this year, 
the first stones of the existing cathedral at Salisbury were laid 

^ Clark, /. c. p. 301. 



Tombs of the Bishops removed to Salisbury Cathedral. 39 

by Bishop Richard le Poer and others. It is probable, how- 
ever, that the citizens had commenced to remove from Old 
Sarum in the reign of Richard L, and that parts of the present 
city were occupied before the foundations of the cathedral 
were laid. The new cathedral was consecrated Sept. 30, 1258, 
Giles de Bridport being then Bishop of Salisbury. 

There were six Bishops of (Old) Sarum :— 

Herman, died about 1078. 

Osmund, consecrated T078 ; died Dec. 3, 1099. 

Roger, consecrated Aug. 10, 1107 ; died Dec. 11, 1139. 

Joceline de Bailul, consecrated 1142 ; died Nov. 18, 1184. 

Hubert Walter, cons. Oct. 22, 11 89; trans. Canterbury, 11 93. 

Herbert Poore, cons. June 5, 1194; died Feb. 6, 12 17. 

He was succeeded by his natural brother, Richard Poore, 
translated from Chichester, 1217 ; who removed the seat of 
the episcopal see from Old Sarum, and established it at Salis- 
bury; he was translated to Durham, 1228. 

The tombs, and probably the remains, of the Bishops buried 
at Old Sarum, were removed to the new cathedral. 

Bishop Herman's (supposed) tomb is on the south side of 
the nave, very near the west door ; it is a flat, coffin-shaped 
slab of Purbeck marble. 

Bishop Osmund's tomb formerly stood in the middle of the 
Lady Chapel, but during Wyatt's alterations (1789 — 90) it was 
removed, and is now on the north side of the nave, between 
the north porch and the transept. It is a mean altar-shaped 
tomb, covered by a slab, inscribed with the date, anno 
MXCIX. — this is all that is left to do honour to the memory 
of the founder of the Cathedral at Old Sarum. 

Bishop Roger's tomb is supposed by many to be that shown 
in Fig. 13, it is situated on the south side of the nave. Down 
the front of the robe of the effigy are the words, " Affer opem 
devenies in idem." Around the sides of the stone are letters, 
described by Mr. Cough as a mixture of Saxon and Roman 
characters. The literal translation of this inscription is as 
follows : — " Salisbury weeps to-day the fall of the sword of 
Justice, the father of the Church of Salisbury. Whilst he 
flourished, he sustained the wretched, and feared not the pride 
of the powerful, but was the punisher (literally ' club') and 
terror of the wicked. He took his origin from chiefs (' dukes' 
or ' leaders'), from noble princes (or ' from the first nobles'), 
and shed lustre on you like a precious stone." 




fi< 1-5'-' 



Tombs of the Bishops removed to Salisbury Cathedral. 41 

The mitre of the effigy is remarkable in its form, differing 
as much from the usual mitre of the twelfth century as it does 
from any later examples. At this period it had the shape of 
an ordinary round cap, slightly indented in the middle. The 
rest of the episcopal costume is in perfect accordance with 
other monuments and drawings of the period, and consist of 
the alb, the dalmatic (with lateral openings), the chasuble, and 
the stole, the ends of which last are to be seen below the 
dalmatic. In the left hand is the pastoral staff in its primitive 
simplicity. The right hand is raised in the attitude of bene- 
diction. 

Bishop Joceline's tomb is also on the south side of the 
nave ; it is shown in Fig. 14. Upon the tomb is the monu- 
mental effigy of a Bishop, /;/ poiitificalibus, with a crozier 
piercing a dragon ; it is surrounded with a border of birds and 
foliage. Joceline was a strong opponent of Thomas a Becket, 
and a supporter of the party of the King (Henry II). On the 
murder of Becket, he shared in the humiliations that befel the 
partisans of the King, he either resigned his Bishopric or was 
ejected from it, and became a Cistercian monk, in 11 84. On 
the loth of November, in the same year, he died. He appears 
to have been buried in the old cathedral, and, according to 
William de Wanda, his remains, together with those of Bishops 
Osmund and Roger, were removed to the present cathedral. 
The head of the effigy under consideration is not the original, 
this is evident from the form of the mitre, which is a richly 
ornamented example of the thirteenth century. 

Bishop Herbert Poore, strictly speaking, the last Bishop of 
(Old) Sarum, was buried at Wilton. The monument to Bishop 
Richard Poore, the founder of Salisbury Cathedral, is shown 
in Fig. II. It formerly lay under a canopy on the north side 
of the High Altar, whence it was removed by Wyatt, in 1789. 
The monument in its original state is shown in Fig. 15. 

1227. Henry III. confirmed the " translatio de castro 
nostro Saerisberise ad locum inferiorem," and declared the city 
"quae dicitur nova Sarisbiria, sit libera civitas." The taxation 
accounts of the reigns of Richard and John show New Sarum 
to have been but moderately populous, but it probably took 
some time to remove, for it was 44 Hen. HI., 1260, before 
the new city was granted by the King to the Bishop " in 
capite," as parcel of the temporalities of the see, the citizens 
being the demesne men of the Bishop. 



42 



Bishop Poore's Mommieut. 




Fig. 15. 
Bishop Poore's Monument, in its Original State, 1237. 



Circumstances rendered the Castle of Old Sarum, "as a 
military post, of less importance than heretofore, and though 
the powerful Earls who bore its title were even more distin- 
guished than their predecessors, their distinction was but little 
associated with their castle, which fell gradually into disuse. 
The Montacutes, indeed, continued to possess it ; but the 
Nevills concentrated their power on the Midland and 
Northern counties, and Warwick, Raby, and Middleham were 
to them what Sarum had been to their precursors in the title. 
Finally, when arms yielded to the gown, and the great 



The Earls of Salisbury. 43 

minister of the great Queen chose, under her successor, 
SaHsbury for his title of honour, he had more regard to the 
thriving city than to the ruined fortress, of which he was not 
even the possessor." 

Patrick, son of Edward de Sarisburie, was created, by Maud, 
the first Earl of Salisbury. Earl Patrick died in 1167. His 
son, William, the second Earl, was father of the celebrated 
Countess Ela. She married William with the Long Sword, 
son of Henry II. and Fair Rosamond, who became Earl of 
Salisbury in her right, and held the castle of Old Sarum ; 
where he died, in 1226. His tomb, now placed on the south 
side of the nave of Salisbury Cathedral, is shown in Fig. 9 ; it 
formerly stood on the north side of the Lady Chapel, but was 
removed to its present situation by Wyatt. The tomb was 
originally richly painted, and some of the colouring is still to 
be seen. This tomb should not be confused with that of his 
son, another William Longspee, which is on the north side of 
the nave, and is shown in Fig. 10. This younger William 
Longspee seems to have claimed, but never to have obtained, 
the Earldom. He joined the Crusaders, under Saint Louis, 
fell fighting, near Cairo, in 1250; and was buried in the 
Church of Holy Cross, at Acre. 

1332. The King (Edward HI.) granted licence to the 
Bishop, dean, and chapter of Salisbury to remove the walls of 
the cathedral and canonical houses v/ithin his castle of Old 
Sarum, and to employ the material in the repairs of the church 
and Close of New Sarum. No doubt, under this licence, the 
whole material was moved down to the ground level, or even 
below it, and probably the licence was held to include the 
outer wall also. At the same time, the Bishop, &c., had 
leave to build a certain chantry on a part of the old cathedral, 
and to use it. 

1337. Edward's son-in-law, WiUiam Montacute, was created 
Earl of Salisbury. A suit was brought by Bishop Wyvil against 
the Earl, on a writ of right, as to his title to the castle. The 
matter was at first to have been tried by battle, and each party 
named a champion ; but finally it was settled by a compro- 
mise, the Bishop paying 2,500 marcs, and the Earl quitting 
the castle to the See for ever. This probably severed the 
connection between the Earls and the Earldom, in the feudal 
sense. 

Hitherto allusion has been made to that space at Old Sarum 



44 The Burgh of Old Sai'wn. 

included within the outer ditch and rampart ; of which por- 
tion nearly ' one-fourth was occupied by the Cathedral and 
Close. But, outside the fortress, chiefly on the south-western 
side, stretched an extensive suburb, or Burgh. This burgh 
was enclosed with a wall, which commenced at the public- 
house (Old Castle Inn) on the eastern side of the road, thence 
it was carried to the foot or the rampart, which it skirted on 
the north, west, and perhaps south. It then diverged, leaving 
a considerable open space on the declivity, and finally abutted 
on the road leading to Stratford. The area of this inclosure 
was 49 acres, 3 roods ; and the joint extent of the fortress and 
burgh amounted to 72 acres, i rood. In the year 1295 
(Edward I.), Old Sarum, as a burgh, first sent members to 
Parliament ; their names were Hugh Sener and Peter le Wayte. 
It was not again represented until the year 1360 (Edward 
III.); from which time till the passing of the Reform Act, 
Old Sarum continued to send two "representatives" to take 
part in the Councils of the nation ; the two last members for 
Old Sarum, James Alexander and Josias Dupre Alexander, 
were "elected" in 1830 ; and the deserted earth-works were 
disfranchised two years afterwards. 

The burgage-tenures, or plots of ground, that conferred the 
elective franchise on those who possessed, or occupied, them 
were nine in number, and, in the whole, amounted to twenty- 
three acres, two roods. Three of them are situated about 
midway between the Castle and the village of Stratford, and 
abut on the Roman road. The middle one is called " Elec- 
tion-acre," in this still stands a tree — an elm, that is said to 
mark the site of the town-house of the ancient borough, it is 
popularly known as " Parliament Tree." The last remaining 
houses of the old city are said to have stood in this quarter ; 
and, after the spot had ceased to be inhabited, the elections 
took place in a tent, erected beneath the " Parliament Tree." 
Of the other burgage-tenures, one was north of the east gate 
of the Castle, one was at the angle of the two roads entering 
Stratford from Salisbury, another was opposite to it, and is now 
converted into a garden, and the remaining three were near 
the river, in Kingsbridge Meadow. 

In later times, the mode of returning two members to 
Parliament for Old Sarum was charmingly simple, there was 
not a single dwelling or inhabitant, upon the site of the old 
city, " but, just before the election, leases of, what were termed,. 



Rui]is of Old Sam in, 45 

burgage tenements were granted by the lord of the manor to 
two persons, who thereupon became electors for the nonce, 
and after voting for the lord's two nominees surrendered their 
leases, and retired into private life until the next dissolution. 
Indeed, so absolute was the power of the lord, that he once 
threatened the Prime Minister of the day, who had done 
something to displease him, that at the next election he would 
return his black servant as one of the members. 

" I myself remember," adds Mr. Lambert, " the occasion of 
the last election for this remarkable place, and a circumstance 
which added to the absurdity of the event was the application 
made by a wag, who, introducing himself to the returning 
officer as a representative of the London press, requested to be 
informed of the state of the poll !"^ 

When the castle proper was dismantled has not been ascer- 
tained. The views, occasionally exhibited of it, seem taken 
from the representation of Sherborne upon Bishop Wyvil's 
brass, in Salisbury Cathedral. 

Leland visited the " Cite of Old-Saresbyri" and writes of it 
in these words : — " this thing hath bene auncient and exceed- 
ing strong ; but syns the building of iV^2£/-Saresbyri it went 
totally to mine." Yet these ruins, in Leland's time, were 
considerable ; for he writes : — " Ther was a paroch of the 
Holy Rode beside in OM Sareshyri; and an other over the 
est gate, whereof yet some tokens remayne." He also says : — 
'' I do not perceyve that ther wer any mo gates in Old Sares- 
hyri than 2 ; one by est, and an other by west. Without eche 
of these gates was a fair suburbe. And in the est suburbe 
was a paroch chirch of S. /o/i?i,- and there yet is a chapelle 
standinge. There hath bene houses in tyme of mind inha- 
bited in the est suburbe of Old-Saresbyri ; but now ther is 
not one house neither within Old- Sareshyri, nor without it, in- 
habited. Ther was a right fair and strong castelle within 
Old-Saresbyri longging to the Erles of Saresbyri, especially the 

* John Lambert, C.B., " Modern Legislation as a Chapter in our His- 
tory," London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1865, p. 6. 

2 The Rev. Canon Jackson remarks upon this (" Wiltshire Magazine,' 
vol. I, p. 162, ;/^/^) :— " The presentations in the SaHsbury registers are 
to * St. Peter's, Old Sarum,' The last Rector was William Colville, pre- 
sented A.D. 1412. There was one presentation by the Crown, in 1381, 
to the Free Chapel in the Castle of Sarum." 



46 St7'af ford-sub- Castle. 

Longespees. I read that one Gualterus^ was the first Erie, after 
the conquest, of it. Much notable rumus building of this 
castelle yet there remayneth." 

But the work of destruction went on with rapidity, and, 
about a century later, when poor Pepys visited Old Sarum, 
the very solitude of the place affrighted him ; to use his own 
words : — " So all over the plain by the sight of the steeple to 
Salisbury by night ; but before I came to the town, I saw a 
great fortification, and there light, and to it, and in it ; and 
find it prodigious, so as to fright me to be in it all alone at 
that time of night, it being dark. I understand since it to be 
that that is called Old Sarum." This was on the tenth of 
June, 1668. Pepys then proceeded on his way to the 
" George Inn," at Salisbury, where he " lay in a silk bed ; and 
very good diet." 

STRATFORD-SUB-CASTLE. 

This village lies immediately beneath Old Sarum, on the 
western side, between it and the Avon. The village derives 
its name — Strat-ford — from being near the "ford of the 
street" — or Roman road to Dorchester, which here crosses 
the Avon. 2 

It has been erroneously stated that the Manor House at 
Stratford, now the residence of the Incumbent of the parish, 
was the birth-place of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham. The 
estate certainly belonged to his ancestors, the Pitts of Boconnoe 
(in Cornwall), and no doubt William Pitt passed many of his 
early days at Stratford, during the residence of his father there; 
but William Pitt was born in the parish of St. James, West- 
minster. His " political" birth, however, may almost be said 
to have taken place at Stratford, for he commenced his political 
career, in 1735, as ^^^^ of the representatives of the borough of 
Old Sarum. 

The parish church of Stratford is a debased perpendicular 
building, the western portion having been rebuilt in the reign 
of Queen Anne (1711). It contains one interesting relic of 
former days — an hour-glass stand, which is placed on the left- 

^ Walter D'Eureux, son of Edward "the Sheriff," and founder of 
Bradenstoke Priory, near Chippenham. 

- Ante, pp. 16, 17. 



Hour-glass Stands. 



47 



hand side of the pulpit (Fig. i6.) The hour-glass, by which 
bygone preachers regulated the length of their discourses, 




1 

T 



Fig. 16. Houe-glass in Stratford Church. 



is gone. That some succeeded but indifferently in finding 
matter upon which to discourse for the allotted sixty minutes, 
is probable ; among such were 

«' — those guho guhen ther matter fails 
Run out \}i\tx glasses with idell tales." 

Hour-glass stands were generally placed at the preacher's right- 
hand, but the rule has exceptions, as in the instance at Stratford. 



48 Hour-glass stands. 

The use of the hour-glass in churches seems to have been intro- 
duced, or at all events to have become more general, after the 
Reformation; when it, with a bracket or stand for its reception, 
formed a regular part of the pulpit-furniture. During the Com- 
monwealth this use of the hour-glass was almost universal, this 
was the period, when 

' ' Gifted brethren, preached by 
A camal hour-glass."^ 

The earliest notices of pulpit hour-glasses are of the sixteenth 
century. Among the accounts of Christ Church, St. Catherine's, 
Aldgate, under the year 1564, this entry occurs : — " Paid for an 
hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpitt when the preacher doth 
make a sermon, that he may know how the hour passeth away." 
In the Preface to the Bishop's Bible, printed by John Day, in 
1569, Archbishop Parker is represented with an hour-glass at 
his right hand. In the churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth, 
under the year 1579, is the entry that is. 4d. was " payd to 
York, for the frame in which the hower standeth." There is 
also a very interesting and curious hour-glass stand, in Leigh 
church, Kent, which bears the date 15*7, unfortunately the 
third figure is missing.^ 

Usually these frames are of iron, but an hour-glass stand of 
massive silver existed, until some twenty years since, in St. 
Dunstan's church. Fleet Street, when it was melted down, and 
made into two staif-heads for the parish beadles. 

That pulpit hour-glasses were in very general use seems 
certain. The preacher in the series of designs known as 
Holbein's " Dance of Death" has an hour-glass beside him, 
in his pulpit ; and Hogarth, in his " Sleeping Congregation," 
has introduced an hour-glass at the left-hand side of the 
preacher. In some sermons, allusions are made to the hour- 
glass as a regular part of the appointments of the pulpit : — " for 
my own part," writes Dr. South, ^ " I never thought a pulpit, 
a cushion, and an hour-glass, such necessary means of salvation, 
but that much of the time and labour which is spent about 

^ Hudibras, Part I., canto iii., v. 1061. 

2 Engraved by Fairholt, in his paper on " Pulpit Hour- Glasses," "Journ. 
Brit. Archseol. Asso,," vol. III., pp. 301 — 301. 

•* In his forty-ninth sermon. Dr. South was born in 1633 and died in 
1716. 



Hour-glass stands. " 49 

them, might be much more profitably employed in catechising 
youth from the desk." And again, in his fifth sermon is the 
following passage : — " Teaching is not a flow of words, nor the 
draining of an hozir-glass, but an effectual procuring ; that a 
man comes to know something which he knew not before, or 
to know it better." Even the presence of such a silent monitor 
was insufficient to restrain such enthusiastic talkers as some of 
the Puritan preachers, who inflicted discourses of two hours or 
more in duration on their congregations. Instances are on 
record of jests, made by the preacher himself, on the length of 
such sermons. Thus, there is prefixed to a book entitled 
" The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters" (1663), a portrait 
of that jester-preacher, he is represented as turning an hour- 
glass that he holds in his hand, and exclaiming : — " I know 
you are good fellows, stay and take another glass." A similar 
tale is told of Daniel Burgess, the celebrated Nonconformist 
divine, at the beginning of the last century. Upon one occa- 
sion, whilst preaching against drunkenness, he permitted him- 
self to be so carried away by his subject, that the hour-glass 
had run out before his discourse was near its conclusion. 
Seeing this, he reversed the glass, at the same time saying : — 
'•'Brethren, I have somewhat more to say on the nature and 
consequences of drunkenness, so lefs have the other glass — and 
then !" — the usual phrase adopted by topers at protracted 
sittings. 

L'Estrange, in one of his fables, speaks of a tedious "holder- 
forth," who was " three-quarters through his second glass f^ and 
the congregation, as might be imagined, being fatigued with 
his discourse, " a good, charitable sexton took compassion of 
the auditory, and procured their deliverance by saying, ' Pray, 
sir, be pleased, when you have done, to leave the key under 
the door,' and so the sexton departed, and the teacher followed 
him soon after." 

The use of the hour-glass probably lingered on in country 
churches, but they ceased to be in anything like general use 
after the Restoration. 

Roman Catholic preachers used the hour-glass as well as 
Protestant divines. There is extant an account of the fall 
of a house in Blackfriars, where a party of Romanists were 
assembled for worship ; the event took place in 1623. The 
preacher, a priest named Drury, is described as "having 
on a surplice, girt about his middle with a linen girdle, and 

E 



50 Heale House. 

a tippet of scarlet on both his shoulders. He was attended 
by a man that brought after him his book and >^^z/;'-glass," 
which hour-glass he set on the table beside him when he 
commenced preaching.^ 

But there were those who denounced the use of the hour- 
glass in preaching, prominent among such were some enthusiasts 
who arose in Edinburgh, in 1681, and styled themselves the 
" Sweet Singers of Israel." Among other things, they renounced 
the limiting the Lord's mind by glasses (hour-glasses). 

We now bid adieu to Old Sarum and its associations, and 
wend our way, along the pleasantly- wooded valley of the Avon, 
to Great Durnford. 

After we pass Little Durnford, we may see on the opposite 
side of the Avon, the village and church of Woodford, visited 
by the Society in 1865. The church contains some Norman 
work, which, however, has been " restored." Leland writes : — 
" The Bishopes of Saresbyri had a proper place at Wodford. 
Bishop Shakeston'^ puUid it down bycause it was sumwhat yn 
ruine." 

A little farther on we descend a steep hill, scooped out by 
the Avon in past geological ages, and before us lies 

HEALE HOUSE. 

This is but a portion of the original mansion. It is one of 
the many hiding-places in which Charles 11. found shelter 
after the battle of Worcester. To use the Royal fugitive's 
own words : — " I went directly away to a widow gentle- 
woman's house, one Mrs. Hyde, some four or five miles 
from Salisbury, where I came into the house just as it was 
almost dark, with Robin Philips^ only, not intending at first 
to make myself known." Mrs. Hyde, however, immediately 
recognised him, having seen him some years before when he 
passed through Salisbury with his father. She was " so trans- 
ported with joy and loyalty towards him, that at supper, 
though his Majesty was set at the lower end of the table, 
yet the good gentlewoman had much ado to overcome 
herself and not to carve to him first ; however, she could not 
refrain from drinking to him in a glass of wine, and giving 

' Clark, " The Fatal Vespers," London, 1657. 

" Nicholas Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury, resigned 1539. 

^ Colonel Robert Philips, who at that time lived at Salisbury. 



Charles II. at Heale House. 5 1 

him two larks, when others had but one." After supper he 
made himself known to Mrs. Hyde, and it was arranged that 
he should leave the house on the following morning, as if 
intending to take his departure, and not return again till 
night. " So Robin Philips and I took our horses," says 
Charles in the narrative which he himself dictated to Pepys, 
" and went as far as Stonehenge ; and there we staid looking 
at the stones for some time, and returned back again to 
Heale, the place where Mrs. Hyde lived, about the hour she 
appointed ; when I went up into the hiding-hole, that was 
very convenient and safe, and staid there all alone some 
four or five days." At the end of this time, the arrange- 
ments for his escape to the coast were completed, and he 
left Heale House at two o'clock in the morning, going out 
by the backway. Charles is said to have beguiled the time 
at Stonehenge by counting and recounting the stones, and 
according to Colonel Philips, " the King's arithmetic gave 
the lie to the fabulous tale that these stones cannot be told 
alike twice together." 

" Neer Wilton sweet, huge heapes of stones are found, 
But so conflis'd, that neither any eie 
Can coitnt them just, nor reason reason try 
What force them brought to so unhkely ground." 

In a play, the Birth of Merlin^, the same idea is expressed. 
Merlin thus addresses his mother : — 

' ' And when you die, I will erect a monument 
Upon the verdant plains of Salisbury, — 
No king shall have so high a sepulchre, — 
With pendulous stones, that I will hang by art, 
Where neither lime nor mortar shall be used — 
A dark enigma to the memory, 
For none shall have the power to ntnnber them ; 
A place that I will hallow for your rest ; 
Where no night-hag shall walk, nor were-wolf tread, 
Where Merlin's mother shall be sepulchred." 

In reference to the hiding-hole at Heale, it may be men- 
tioned that, in those days, country-houses were frequently 
provided with such secret chambers, in which refugees might 
live concealed from all but the master and mistress of the 
mansion ; or known besides, at the utmost, to one or two 

^ This play has been ascribed to Shakespeare, the first edition known 
was published in 1662. 

E 2 



52 Hiding-hole in the Close, Salisbury, 

confidential servants. Usually these " hiding holes" were 
very straitened and inconvenient. Father Garnet, who 
suffered for his guilty knowledge of the Gunpowder Treason, 
remained for some time in such a secret chamber at Hend- 
lip Hall, near Worcester, in company with another Jesuit, 
named Hall. But the smallness of the place at length com- 
pelled them to come forth, and they were carried off as 
prisoners by Sir Henry Bromley. Frequently, the approach 
to such chambers could only be gained by removing cer- 
tain boards in the floor or the stair-case ; they seem also to 
have been situated under the roofs of houses, for we find it 
directed that " if there be a loft towards the roof of the 
house, in which there appears no entrance out of any other 
place or lodging, it must of necessity be opened and looked 
into, for these be ordinary places of hovering" (hiding). 

An ingeniously concealed " hiding-hole" was discovered a 
few years since, in a wainscoted summer-house, in the garden 
behind Mr. Morris' residence, in the Close, SaHsbury. A 
spring was accidentally touched, and a panel immediately 
opened, disclosing a small cupboard with a shelf in it ; this 
shelf is sliding, and, when removed, access is gained to a 
small door, only twelve or fourteen inches wide, on the right- 
hand side of the cupboard. This door is kept shut from the 
outside by the sliding shelf; it may also be fastened by the 
occupant of the hiding-place, on the inside, by means of an 
iron hasp and staple, which can be secured by an iron pin 
having a hole in its bent top \ through this hole a cord was 
intended to be passed to fasten the pin to the staple. Behind 
the door is a very narrow, steep ascent, formed by the arch of 
the chimney of a hidden fire-place ; this leads to the joists 
above the ceiling of the summer-house, and thence to the 
hiding-place, which is over the entrance door of the summer- 
house, and apart from its main ceiling. Here is a wooden 
platform, so contrived as to allow a person to sit or lie down ; 
and through a chink, left in the carved ornamental facing of 
the building, it is possible for a person so concealed to see 
what is going on outside, and to observe the approach of any- 
one. At the time of the discovery of this "hiding-hole," 
there was found in it a mattress and a handsomely worked 
blue velvet pillow, both of which fell to pieces upon being 
touched. There was likewise found a drinking-horn, the metal 
rim of which had been removed, this vessel, being a veritable 



Netton. 53 

" tumbler," was inverted upon the boards. There are other 
concealed chambers in the mansion itself. The earliest known 
lease of the property, granted by the Dean and Chapter of 
Salisbury, is dated Oct. 4, 1660, and allusion is made in it to 
the surrender of a former lease. 

NETTON. 

After passing Heale House, we come to the hamlet of Netton. 
An entry in the Saxon Chronicle, under the year 508, gives 
much interest to this name. It is as follows : — " Now Cerdic 
and Cynric slew a British King whose name was Natan-leod^ 
and 5000 men with him. Then after that the land was called 
Natan-kaga, as far as Cerdic's ford." According to Dr. Guest 
there never was a British king of the name of Natanleod, and 
he conceives that it was not a proper name, but a title of 
honour. The word is formed from the Welsh term ^lawt, a 
" sanctuary," and would, according to all analogy, be known to 
the Saxons as Nat-e (gen. Nat-aii) ; Leod, though not found in 
Anglo-Saxon dictionaries, occurs in Anglo-Saxon poems with 
the sense of "Prince." The whole word would thus mean 
" Prince of the sanctuary," this according to Dr. Guest, was a 
title borne by Ambrosius, who died in the before-mentioned 
year (508), and of whom and the "sanctuary" more will be 
said hereafter under the head of Amesbury. 

Cerdic's ford is supposed to be Chard-ford, a small hamlet 
below Salisbury. The territory called Natan-leaga (or the Leas of 
the Nat-e) consisted probably of the woodlands which stretched 
from the Avon to the Test and Itchin. At all events, scattered 
over this district, which includes not only a portion of Wilts but 
also of Hants, are to be found memorials of Britain's early 
chieftain — Natanleod. There is " Net-ley," near Southampton. 
The hamlet, " Net-ton," through which we are passing, and 
which is but a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon Nate-tun, i.e., 
" the village of the Nat-e." And then, on the south-eastern 
border of Clarendon Wood, not far from Salisbury, is (or was) 
a place called " Net-ley" coppice.^ 

Following the windings of the Avon we reach Great Durn- 
ford. 

1 See Jones, "The Names of Places in Wilts," in "Wilts Mag.," vol. 
xiv., pp. 262 — 264 ; Guest " Early English Settlements in Britain," in 
"Salisbury vol. Archaeol. Inst.," p. 58. 



54 Great Di{rjifo7'd. — Oghury Camp. 

GREAT DURNFORD CHURCH 

Has very rich Norman north and south doorways and chancel 
arch. The font also is Norman, with an intersecting arcade. 
There is a curious brass (1670) to the memory of Edward 
Younge, of Little Durnford, Mary his wife, and fourteen 
children. A copy of Bishop Jewel's " Apology of the Church 
of England," ordered by Convocation after the Reformation, 
is preserved in this church, chained to a desk. 

Great Durnford House, now the residence of John Pinckney, 
Esq., was once a seat of the Hungerfords. Evelyn notes in his 
diary, July 22, 1654, "We dined at a ferme of my uncle Hun- 
gerfords, called Darneford Magna, situate in a valley under the 
plaine, most sweetly watered, abounding in troutes." Unfor- 
tunately the jack in the Avon have now greatly reduced the 
number of " troutes" in that river. 

After leaving Great Durnford Church and crossing the Avon 
we come to Lake House, the residence of the Rev. E. Duke. 
Before doing so, however, some will perhaps visit 

OGBURY CAMR 

This earth-work is of very simple construction. It includes 
an area of about 62 acres, and is defended by an earthen 
bank, about t^'^ feet in height, without an accompanying ditch ; 
there is an entrance on the eastern side. Stukeley thus 
describes it : — " On the east side of the river Avon, by Great 
Durnford, is a very large camp, covering the whole top of a 
hill, of no determinate figure, as humouring the height it 
stands on ; it is entirely without any ditch, the earth being 
heaped up very steep in the nature of a parapet, when dug 
away level at the bottom. I doubt not but this was a camp 
of the Britons, and perhaps an oppidum, where they retired at 
night from the pasturage upon the river, with their cattle; 
within it are many little banks carried straight, and meeting 
one another at right-angles, square, oblong parallels, and som 
oblique, as the meres and divisions between ploughed lands ; 
yet it seems never to have been ploughed ; and there is like- 
wise a small squarish work intrenched, no bigger than a large 
tent ; these seem to me the distinctions and divisions for the 

several quarters and lodgments of the people within 

This camp has an aspect very old ; the prominent part of the 
rampart in many places quite consumed by time, though the 



PalcBolithic Implements found at Lake. 



55 



steep remains perfect ; one being the natural earth the other 
factitious." Sir Richard Hoare confirms the accuracy of the 
above description, but considers that the " small squarish 
work" is of very recent date. 

It is singular that so few relics are to be found in, and near, 
the camps of this neighbourhood. I have hunted over Ogbury, 
Chlorus's Camp, and Old Sarum, with the well-known archaeo- 
logist, Mr. Evans, whose eye is perhaps the keenest in England 
for a worked flint, and yet, during the entire day, we scarcely 
found a specimen worth taking home. 

On the opposite side of the Avon to Ogbury, capping the 
hill above Lake House, is a patch of Quaternary gravel, 
coloured yellow on the plan of the route. In this gravel 
palaeolithic implements have been found ; but, as yet, they 
have not been met with in any similar deposit higher up in 
the valley. The implement shown in Fig. 17 is from the 




Fig. 17. Paleolithic Implement, found at Lake, k- 

Lake gravel, and was found by Mr, Tiffin, jun., of Salisbury, 
in 1865 ; it is now preserved in the Blackmore Collection. 
This spot seems also to have been a favorite resort with the 
people of the later Stone Age (Neolithic), for the surface-soil 



56 Lake House. 

is perfectly strewn with waste flakes and other rejected pieces 
of flint cutlery. 

At a little distance, in the direction of Woodford, an Anglo- 
Saxon interment was discovered a few years since. 

LAKE HOUSE. 

This mansion, with its many-gabled roof and its trimly kept 
yew hedges, is one of the most picturesque ohjects that lies in 
the route between Salisbury and Stonehenge. It is of the 
time of James I. 

At an early period there seems to have been a religious 
house at Lake. And the first gift to Bradenstoke Priory by 
Walter, of Salisbury, its founder (William L), included the 
" Capella de Lacha," with all its appurtenances ; one Richard 
Cotele also gave a virgate of land in " Lacha." At the Dis- 
solution, the land and tythes belonging to the chapel of Lake 
were leased by the Crown to Richard South of Ambresbury : 
were afterwards granted to the Partridge family; and, in 1599, 
were purchased by George Duke.^ 

The taste of its owners has filled Lake House with objects 
that merit a more careful inspection, than it will be possible 
for us to bestow upon them in the limited time at our disposal.^ 

Built into the wall of the porch, as we enter, may be seen 
an interesting alabaster tablet, very similar to one preserved in 
the Salisbury Museum, shown in Fig. 18. The Lake specimen 
differs from the Salisbury example in having the figures of St. 
Katherine and St. Helen in the back-ground, and in some 
few of the details. In the middle of the Salisbury example is 
the head of St. John the Baptist in a charger, on either side 
are St. Peter and St. Thomas of Canterbury. The head of 
St. John, represented with long hair and beard, the eyes 
closed in death, rests upon a circular disc. Above is a small 
nude figure,^ with the hands clasped, surrounded by an aureola 
of pointed-oval form, and supported by two angels. Beneath 
is the upper part of a figure, with upraised hands, probably 
Christ rising from the sepulchre. On the dexter side of the 
tablet is St. Peter, with a key and book ; on the other side is a 
mitred figure vested in a cope, holding an archiepiscopal cross- 

1 R. C. Hoare, " Underditch," p. 137. 
- It should be borne in mind that Lake House is a private residence which 
was kindly thrown open by Mr. Duke to those members of the Wilts Archaeo- 
logical and Natural History Society who made this excursion in 1876. 
^ The figure is represented in a crouching posture in the Lake example. 




Fig. 18. Alabaster Tablet (Salisbury Museum). 



58 Mediceval objects in the Lake Collection. 

staff and a book.^ This probably represents St. Thomas of 
Canterbury. The correct explanation of the constituent parts 
of this, and similar, tablets has been much discussed ; pro- 
bably the figures are intended to represent the persons men- 
tioned, but the reason or meaning of their being put together 
in this particular way still remains to be discovered. 

Many very interesting objects are to be seen in Mr. Duke's 
collection. Among these may be noticed two pair of hand- 
some enameled fire-dogs. They are examples of a peculiar, 
although rather coarse, kind of enameling, usually on brass 
(not on copper), by the cJiampleve process, as practised in 
England during the reign of Elizabeth and in subsequent 
times. The process consisted of inlaying enamels, fusible 
probably at a low temperature, in the interstices of a pattern 
in relief Several fire-dogs of this work have been preserved, 
and on some of these are the royal arms.'^ 

Perhaps the most important feature in Mr. Duke's collec- 
tion is the series of objects, exhumed by his late father, from 
some burial-mounds in the immediate neighbourhood. The 
great explorer of our Wiltshire barrows. Sir Richard Colt 
Hoare, refers especially to the examination of some tumuli on 
Lake Down by the late Rev. E. Duke, F.S.A. : — "I omitted," 
he says, ''those (barrows) numbered 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. These 
claim a separate owner, under whose immediate inspection 
they were opened, and under whose fostering care the very 
singular and curious relicks which they produced, are cau- 
tiously preserved, at his venerable and picturesque old 
mansion-house in the adjoining village of Lake. These five 
tumuli were opened by the Rev. Edward Duke, in the year 
1806, and I am happy to think that the zeal he shewed in his 
first antiquarian researches were so amply remunerated, as to 
induce him to resume them on some future occasion ; for few 
barrows ever proved so interesting as Nos. 19 and 20. A great 
similarity attended the three first of these tumuli, No. 16, 17, 
18, as they each contained an interment of burned bones, and 
each produced a small lance-head^ of brass^ ; but though No. 
20 had also a lance-head, the uniformity was most pleasantly 
broken by the discovery of four curious little articles of bone, 
which were intermixed with the ashes and burned bones. 
They are a perfect novelty, and had their meaning and use in 

^ In the Lake example, the staff terminates in -^ fleiir-de-tis. 
^ ** Arch. Jour." vol. xix. , p. 291. ^ Dagger-blade. "* Bronze. 



Ancient British objects in the Lake Collection. 59 

British times ; though in the more modern and enHghtened 
period of the present day, we are at a loss to conjecture what 
that meaning and what that usage were."^ Sir R. C. Hoare 
has figured the obverse and reverse of each of these objects.^ 
They are rectangular pieces of bone, measuring barely three- 
quarters of an inch in length, rather more than half an inch 
in A^dth, and are of no great thickness. They are flat on one 
surface and convex on the other, some of them are stained of 
a greenish hue from having been in contact with bronze, the 
surfaces are rubbed smooth, and a different design has been 
worked upon six of them, the other two being left blank. The 
designs consist of crosses, and of diamond-shaped figures. It 
has been suggested that they were used in playing some kind 
of game, or, possibly, in casting lots. These interesting objects 
were found in a cist, with burned bones ; the cist, over which 
the tumulus had been raised was sunk to the depth of 20 
inches below the surface-level of the ground. The late Rev. 
E. Duke was of opinion that these bone " tesserae" had been 
enclosed in a wooden box ; fragments of which were found 
in the cist. Barrow No. 21, of the Lake group, seems to 
have been raised over a female — some woman of distinction 
— if we may judge from the number and importance of the 
trinkets buried with her.^ " The most remarkable of these, 
and unique in size, though not in pattern, was an ornament 
in amber, ten inches in height and above three in breadth ; 
it is formed of eight distinct tablets, and being strung together, 
formed one ornament, as may be distinctly seen by the per- 
forations at top and bottom."* 

The late Dr. Thurnam has described these objects rather 
fully. " They occur," he says, " in sets of three, six, and eight. 
These plates, found with seven interments, five of them burnt, 
are about a quarter-inch thick, rounded at the upper and 
lower margins, and vary in size from one to three inches in 
length, and from three-quarters to one-and-a-half inch in width. 
In the vertical edges are a series of equi-distant perforations, 
which, according to the size, are four, six, or even ten in 
number. The perforations mostly pass through from edge to 
edge, and are bored with great accuracy, probably with a 

^ " Anc, Wilts," vol. i. p. 212. " Ibid, Tumuli Plate xxxi. 

^ We should, however, bear in mind that, among modern savages, the 
warrior wears more ornaments than his wife. 

■* " Anc. Wilts," vol. i., p. 213. 



-6© Amber ornaments found in Tumuli^ at Lake. 

metallic borer, worked most likely with a bow-drill. The 
plates are always accompanied by beads of the same material, 
and there can be no doubt that the two were strung together, 
so as to form symmetrical ornaments analogous to those of jet 
found in the barrows of Derbyshire and North Britain. This 
combination was not realised by Sir Richard Hoare, who was 
of opinion that the plates were strung together, and worn 
lengthwise on the breast. The MS. notes of the late Rev. E. 
Duke, kindly lent me by his son, describing the barrow which 
yielded the set of plates of largest size, eight in number, do 
not expressly name these tablets, but merely say ' the skeleton 
was found with rows of red amber beads around the neck.' In 
another of the Lake barrows, also about two miles from Stone- 
henge, opened by Mr. Duke, was ' a skeleton having on a 
necklace of amber beads,' to which, no doubt, belongs the set 
of three smaller plates with four-fold perforations, still to be 
seen at Lake House. Through the kind aid of the present 
owner, I have succeeded in constructing models of these two 
complex collars, in a style which must closely approximate to 
that of the original ornaments.^ 

" The perforations in the three plates of the lesser collars, 
as well as in the four outer plates of the large, run straight 
through from edge to edge (see Fig. 19);'^ but in the four 
larger and more central plates of the latter, only the upper 
and lower perforations run through the plates, whilst the eight 
which are intermediate go a little way in and pass out again, 
each two adjoining perforations communicating right and left 
by a curvilinear canal (see Fig. 19). This very ingenious 
method has probably been contrived to ensure the better set 
of the large ornaments, as well as for more security ; it being 
obvious that if the through-and-through perforations had been 
continued from one to the other end of the ornament, the 
breaking of one or two sets of threads might have resulted in 
the loss of great part of the whole. 

" It is to be observed that this large collar is of most un- 
usual dimensions. In addition to the eight large dividing 
plates it appears to have comprised in its construction nearly 

^ " Archasologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 506, Fig. 199. The size of this 
illustration is too large to admit of my using it in this work. It is given by 
Mr. Long, " Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 181. 

- I am indebted to the Society of Antiquaries of London for the loan of 
this wood-block, and of Figs. 34 and 35. 



Amber ornaments found in Tiuniili. at Lake. 



6r 



two hundred beads ; and when arranged in an easy curve, to 
have measured fifteen inches across, and twenty-five inches in 
length, in the lower curvature. When worn, it must have ex- 
tended from shoulder to shoulder, hanging half-way down to 
the waist. None of the dividing-plates in these ornaments 
present any trace of surface decoration, such as the favorite 
British chevron, so often seen on the corresponding pieces of 
the jet necklaces." 




Fig. 19, Amber dividing-plates from half the Collar shown as 

TRANSPARENT. FrOM A BARROW AT LAKE, WiLTS.^ §. 

Examples of amber beads, of different forms, in the Lake 
Collection, are shown in Fig. 20. Ten buttons or studs of 
amber. Fig. 21, were found in a barrow at Lake. Indeed 
amber objects are of frequent occurrence in the barrows of 
Wiltshire; thirty-three interments are recorded by Sir R. C. 
Hoare,^ with which ornaments of this substance were found. 
The amber, in every instance, is of the red transparent kind, 
which, as well as the pale variety, is found in England at 
Cromer (Norfolk) and on the Yorkshire coast. 

The amber objects in the Lake Collection are in rather a 
frail condition, and, if handled at all, should be touched with 
great care. I feel sure that Mr. Duke will be thankful for any 
hints that may enable him to arrest the decay of these inte- 
resting specimens. 

The most remarkable amber object, met with in this 
country, is a drink ing-cup. It was found in a barrow at Hove, 

1 '•Archaeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 505, Fig. 198. 
^ Six by inhumation, and twenty-seven by cremation. 



62 



Amber ornaments found in Tumuli^ at Lake. 



near Brighton. The in- 
terment had taken place 
in an oaken coffin, and 
associatedwith the amber 
cup were found a double- 
ed2;ed drilled stone axe, 
and a bronze dagger. 
The cup is three and a 
half inches in diameter, 
two inches and a half in 
height, and about one 
tenth of an inch in thick- 
ness ; its capacity is rather 
more than half a pint. It 
is perfectly smooth inside 
and out, and seems to 
have been turned on a 
lathe. Such an object 



Fig. 21, Amber Ornaments. 
Lake, Wilts.' \. 

may, possibly, have come 
by commerce into Bri- 
tain ; and, indeed, amber 
is one of the articles men- 
tioned by Strabo as ex- 
ported from Celtic Gaul 
to this county.^ 

With an unburnt body, 
in the barrow at Lake 
which yielded the large 
collar of amber, were 
two pairs of small cir- 
cular discs of gold. Two 
of these, the size of flo- 

^ " Archseologia," vol. xliii., 
part 2, p. 503, Fig. 195. 

- Evans, "Anc. Stone Impts. 
Gt. Brit.," pp. 402, 403. ,.• 




OSl^ 



DQ 




\A 




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bjO 


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• I— 1 


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PR 


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Sepulchral Urns in the Lake Collection. 63 

rins, are decorated with double circles of zigzags. The other 
two, quite plain, are much smaller. From the position in which 
they were found, in close proximity to the skull, they have 
been regarded as pendants for the ears. 

Among the other interesting specimens preserved in the 
Lake Collection are fragments of charred woven-cloth, obtained 
from an urn in one of the Lake barrows. A similar specimen 
is in the possession of Miss Cunnington ; it was found in one 
of the Upton tumuli, opened by her grandfather. Such ex- 
amples of textile fabrics from burial-mounds are not at all 
common.^ 

There are also, in the Lake Collection, two grooved whet- 
stones (found in a tumulus on Normanton Down), several 
bronze torques, and five bronze dagger-blades, all obtained 
from the neigbouring barrows. Nor is the series of pottery 
from these barrows at all unimportant, it includes an example 
of a cinerary urn with overhanging rim, much finer than either 
of the two figured by Sir R. C. Hoare. "The bold over- 
hanging rim, which occupies one-fourth of the height of this 
urn, is profusely ornamented with impressed herring-bone and 
decussating lines ; below the rim are two other rows of 
chevrons ; whilst along the shoulder a single row of circular 
indentations is carried, made by the finger, or rounded end of 
a stick."- This specimen was found in 1806, and is especially 
noticed by Sir R. C. Hoare. Two other fine examples of this 
type of urn are in the Lake Collection. 

An example may also be seen at Lake of the type of 
sepulchral urn provided with a border in place of a rim, this 
vessel is quite plain, and has bowed handles ; it may have 
been obtained from either the Lake or the Durnford group of 
barrows. 

Sir Richard Hoare has figured^ an " incense cup," preserved 
in the Lake collection. The late Dr. Thurnam considered 
this specimen to be a double vessel, there is a division in the 
middle, so that either the obverse or reverse side could have 
been used.* 

Nor should the visitor omit to notice a (very) small frag- 

^ There is preserved in the Blackmore Collection, a fragment of woven- 
cloth (charred) which was found in a tumulus in Butler's County, Ohio. 

^Thurnam, "Anc. Brit. Barrows," in " Archaeologia," vol. xliii., 
part2, p. 345. 

^ " Anc. Wilts," vol. i., p. 213, pi. xxxi, 
■* " Archaeologia," vol. xliii,, part 2, p. 361, note. 



64 Celt-mould in the Lake Collection. 

ment of the wooden handle of a bronze dagger, it is elabo- 
rately ornamented with minute gold pins, that have been 
driven into it so as to form a pattern ; it was found in a 
tumulus on Normanton Down. Sir R. C. Hoare obtained a 
hafted bronze dagger from " Bush Barrow," Normanton, the 
blade was one of the largest found in Wiltshire (lo^ inches 
long) and the wooden handle was ornamented with an in- 
finity of gold pins of almost microscopic size, the ends of * 
which formed a beautiful zigzag. pattern. ^ 

Many bone pins, some stained green from having been in 
contact with bronze ; vitrified and jet beads ; bronze armillge 
and rings ; and other personal ornaments are included in the 
Lake Collection. The torques, armillse, and rings were found 
during some alterations to the road between Amesbury and 
Salisbury. A fragment of a spear-head, in the collection, is 
not from a local barrow, but was found in making the Kennet 
and Avon Canal, about the year 1810. 

The three portions of a circle of metal, ornamented with 
(query " artificial") gems, is not a local specimen ; it was. 
found, in 1802, in a stream-work, called Trenoweth (in Corn- 
wall), and was presented to Mr. Duke by W. Rashleigh, Esq., 
of Menabilly.2 

In the Lake Collection is also preserved a highly-finished 
mould of syenite, which was intended to be used in casting 
bronze celts. The shape of the mould is that of a four- 
sided prism, and the cavities, worked into two of its sides, 
show that it was intended for casting socketed celts of two 
sizes ; one of which was for casting celts provided with two 
loops. A second prism, the duplicate of this must have 
existed to complete the mould ; notches are made in the Lake 
specimen (and no doubt existed in the other portion) in order 
to enable the workmen to adjust the two halves with precision. 
Socketed celts with two loops are not common, but there is 
evidence to show that socketed celts, provided with one or 
two loops, were in contemporary use with spear-heads of 
bronze of rather elegant — as one may say, advanced — forms. 
A very remarkable mould of hone-stone, found in Anglesea, 
serves to prove this ; like the Lake specimen, it is a four-sided 
prism, but it has cavities on all four sides, three are for casting 

^ Thurnam, " Archseologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 459 : Hoare, "Anc. 
Wilts," vol. I., p. 202, plate xxvii. 2. 
^ This specimen has been figured and described. *' Archaeol.," vol. xvi. 



Amesbury. 65 

the heads of spears or darts, all of different types, and one is 
for casting socketed celts with two loops. 

The mould in the Lake Collection was found near Nine Mile 
Water, in the parish of Bulford, almost opposite the tenth mile- 
stone from Salisbury to Marlborough, but on the opposite 
(north) side of the stream. The precise date of the find is not 
recorded, but, according to Mr. Edwards of Amesbury, to 
whom I am indebted for tracing out the history of this spe- 
cimen, it was found prior to 1833. 

AMESBURY. 

The name of this place was originally Caer Etnrys and after- 
wards Ambreshury, i.e. the "burgh" or town of Ambrosius. 
Ambrosius became a King in Britain in the year 464, and for 
45 years carried on a successful struggle against the advancing 
Saxons. In the Welsh Triads, Amesbury is generally men- 
tioned as Caer Caradoc, i.e. the town of Caradoc, a British 
chieftain, who, after the death of Ambrosius, appears to have 
been one of the most powerful in South Britain. 

Amesbury remains as a memorial of the Primitive Chris- 
tianity of Britain — '' a glimmering spark, just visible through 
the murky darkness of intervening ages — proving that, what- 
ever we may have subsequently owed to Augustin, Rome was 
not the first to kindle the torch of truth in Britain." 

The Welsh Triads mention this place as the site of a great 
monastery in which " there were 2400 saints, that is, there 
were 100 for every hour of the day and night in rotation, per- 
petuating the praise of God without intermission." Hence, as 
Dr. Guest observes : — " The choir of Ambrosius was probably, 
in the middle of the fifth century, the monastery of Britain — 
the centre from which flowed the blessings of Christianity and 
civilization." 

Amesbury is of much interest in legendary history as the 
place of Qneen Guinevere's penitential retirement. 

Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat 

There in the holy house at Almesbury 

Weeping, — Tennyson. 

A Benedictine nunnery was founded here, about the year 
980, by Queen Elfrida, to expiate the murder of her stepson 
Edward, at Corfe. In T117, Henry II. expelled the nuns for 
dissolute living, and gave it to the great convent of Fontevrault, 

F 



66 Eve?its relating to Ameshury. 

in Anjou, whence it received a prioress and twenty-four nuns. 
It increased in splendour and in royal favour, and became a 
favourite retreat of ladies of royal or noble birth. 

On the day of the Assumption, in 1283, Mary, sixth daughter 
of Edward I., in company with thirteen ladies of noble birth, 
took the veil here ; and here, in 1292, died Eleanor, Queen of 
Henry III. Katharine of Aragon lodged within its walls on 
her first arrival in England, in 1501. 

Florence Bormewe, the last abbess but one, resisted the 
attempts of Cromwell's emissaries to induce her to surrender 
her monastery into the King's hands. " Albeit we have used 
as many ways with her as our poor wits could attain, yet in the 
end we could not by any persuasion bring her to any confor- 
mity, but at all times she resteth and so remaineth in these 
terms. ' If the King's Highness command me to go from this 
house I will gladly go, though I beg my bread, and as for pen- 
sion I care for none.'" One is hardly sorry to learn that the 
death of the abbess, almost immediately afterwards, saved her 
from further humiliation. The convent was surrendered by 
Joan Darell, the last abbess, to Henry VIII. Dec. 4, 1540. 

After the Dissolution (in April, 1541) the monastery was 
granted to the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Protector Somerset, 
who made a residence out of the old buildings, and the Pro- 
tector's son, Edward, Earl of Hertford, lived here. His second 
wife was Frances, daughter of Lord Howard of Bindon. Sir 
George Rodney was so enamoured of this lady, that on her 
marriage he came to Amesbury, wrote a copy of verses to the 
countess in his own blood, and then fell on his sword. 

The property passed by marriage, sale, and inheritance, 
respectively, to the families of Ailesbury, Boyle, and Queens- 
berry. William, fourth Duke of Queensberry, died in t8io^ 
and, in 1824, his estate was purchased by Sir Edmund 
Antrobus, whose son is the present owner. 

The Old Mansion, on the site of which the present House 
is erected, was formerly the residence of Charles, third Duke of 
Queensberry, and his charming Duchess — Prior's 

*' Kitty, beautiful and young, 
And wild as colt untam'd. " 

In their hospitable mansion Gay found a peaceful home, and 
here he is said to have written the " Beggar's Opera." Johnson 
informs us that the Duke undertook the management of the 



" Gatmtlef Pipes 7nade at Aviesbury. 67 

poet's little property, and dispensed it out to him according to 
his wants. In a letter to Swift after Gay's death, the Duchess 
writes : — " I have lost in him the usefiillest limb of my mind. 
This is an odd expression, but I cannot explain my notion 
otherwise." She died in 1777; the Duke survived her but a 
short time. 

Amesbury Church (repaired, in 1852, by Sir Edmund 
Antrobus) is supposed to have been that of the Abbey. It is 
a fine large cruciform edifice, of Early English character, with 
a low square central tower. There are some rich decorated 
windows to the south of the chancel. 

Before we take our leave of Amesbury, something must be 
said about a branch of manufacture formerly carried on there — 
that of tobacco-pipes. Fuller, in his " Worthies of Wiltshire," 
says : — *' The best tobacco-pipes for shape and colour (as 
curiously sized) are made at Amesbury, in this county. 
' Gauntlet' pipes, having that mark at the heel, are the best. 
They may be called chimneys portable in pockets." Why they 
were called " gauntlet" pipes, we learn from Aubrey. " Ames- 
bury," he says, " is famous for the best tobacco-pipes in Eng- 
land, made by Gauntlet, who markes the heele of them with a 
gauntlet, whence they are called gauntlet pipes. The clay of 
which they are made is brought from Chittern, in this county." 
A very fine example of such a "gauntlet" pipe, shown in 
Fig 22, was for many years in the Museum at Portsmouth ; 
when that collection was dispersed, this pipe came into my 
possession, and is now deposited in the Salisbury and South 
Wilts Museum. On the heel are stamped, in a circle, the 
words AMSBVRY PIPES, in the middle of which is a right- 
hand gauntlet, and the initials G.B.; the date 1698 is impressed 
beneath the circle. The bowl also is ornamented, details of 
which are given in the engraving. The " gauntlet" pipe repre- 
sented in Fig. 23,1 is of unusual size; it was found at Ciren- 
cester by Professor Buckman, who presented it to Mr. W. J. 
Bernhard Smith. The original measures 4 inches, from the 
heel to the mouth ; the diameter of which is not less than 2 
inches. On the inner surface of the bowl there are diagonal 
lines and patterns produced by minutely punctured work. 
The heel of this pipe, one inch and a half in diameter, is 
impressed with a small circular stamp, eight times repeated, 

^ Figured and described in "Archasol. Journal," vol. xxvi,, pp. 285, 286. 

F 2 



68 



Attempts to Pii-ate the " Gauntlet" mark. 




Fig. 22. " Gauntlet" Pipe, made at Amesbury, date 1698. 

and charged with a right hand, or "gauntlet," on an escut- 
cheon. The pipe shown in Fig. 24, equals the Cirencester 
specimen in size ; the tube is perfect, measuring 8^ inches 
in length. The bowl, elaborately ornamented with dotted 
patterns, is stamped repeatedly with the maker's name — 
JAMES FARE. This pipe was dug up at Wigan, in 1769. 
It was in the Portsmouth Museum, and came into my hands 
at the same time as the pipe shown in Fig. 22. 

Fuller relates the ingenious defence of a tobacco-pipe 
maker who was sued for pirating the "gauntlet" mark, and 
alleged that the thumb of his gauntlet stood differently to 
the plaintiffs, and that the hand given dexter or sinister in 
heraldry is a sufficient difference. During the excavations 



" Gauntlcf Pipes found at Cirencester and Wiga7i. 69 



made at various times in the streets of Salisbury, for drainage 
purposes, a great many tobacco-pipes, as well as other objects, 
have been found ; most of these are now preserved in the 




Fig. 23. " Gauntlet" Pipe, pound at Cirencester, engraved 
rather more than half-size. 




2 ; 










Fig. 24. Found at Wigan, in 1769. 



70 



Tobacco-pipes found in Salisbury. 



Salisbury Museum. Among the tobacco-pipes, so found, are 
examples of several varieties of "gauntlet" pipes, the marks 
on the heels of these are represented in the upper row of 
Fig. 25 ; it will be observed that only one shows the right- 
hand. Other makers-marks, from specimens found in Salis- 
bury are shown in Figs. 25 — 30. 









Fig. 25. Makeks-maeks, on the Heels of Tobacco-pipes found in 

Salisbury. 




Fig. 26. Makers-marks, on the Heels of Tobacco-pipes found in 

Salisbury. 




Fig. 27. Tobacco-pipe found in Salisbury. 



Tobacco-pipes found in Salisbury. 



71 




Fig. 28. Tobacco-pipe found in Salisbury. 




Fig. 29. Tobacco-pipe found in Salisbuky. 




Fig. 30. Tobacco-pipe found in Salisbury. 



72 The " Gauntlef^ viark pirated in Shropshire. 

Little is known of the Gauntlets who carried on this manufac- 
tory at Amesbury. Aubrey alludes to a Mr. William Gauntlet, 
of Netherhampton, who was born at Amesbury. This family 
held a good position in the county, and their monuments, from 
1672 to 171 3, are to be found in Netherhampton Church, 
about a mile distant from the village of Quidhampton, through 
which we are to pass on our way back to Salisbury. 

The habit of pirating the Amesbury " gauntlet" mark seems 
to have been not uncommon. The manufacture of tobacco- 
pipes was extensively carried on at Broseley, in Shropshire, 
from an early period ; and a " Broseley" is still a familiar term 
for a tobacco-pipe in the north of England. Why Broseley 
should have been selected for this branch of manufacture has 
often excited surprise, for the clay of which the pipes are made 
is, and (as far as tradition can help us) always has been, 
obtained from Devon and Cornwall. At all events, Broseley 
became celebrated for its pipes, but we find that the " gauntlet" 
was considered to be such a warranty of excellence, that this 
trade-mark was pirated even there. In a list of pipe-marks 
used by the Broseley makers, during the seventeenth century, 
is to be found the device of a " gauntlet," with the initials 
S. D., probably Samuel Decon, who was alive in 1729. This 
pipe is in the collection of Mr. Thursfield, of Broseley.^ In 
the whole of Mr. Thursfield's important collection, only three 
bowls bear dates, viz. — Richard Legg, 1687 ; John Legg, 1687 ; 
and John Legg, 1696. All three are therefore of earlier date 
than the Amesbury pipe shown in Fig. 22. Representations of 
some of the tobacco-pipes in Mr. Thursfield's collection are 
shown in Fig. 31 ; among them are to be noticed some, the 
date of which has been determined. The pipe represented by 
Fig. 32 has the date 1689, scratched on the bowl, instead of 
being stamped as usual on the heel of the pipe. 




Fiff. 32. 



^ Papers on Broseley pipes, written by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., 
and Mr. Thursfield, have appeared in "The Reliquary," Jan., 1863. I 
am indebted to Mr. Jewitt for the loan of the wood-blocks illustrating the 
Broseley tobacco-pipes. Mr. Thursfield's pipes were nearly all found in 
the rubbish from the base of Wenlock Abbey, in 181 7. 




t-.'j^flwiTr.F"* "eRBy.ite/«j» 



Fig. 31. Old English Tobacco Pipes, made at Broseley, Shropshire. 



74 Tobacco-pipes of the Period of Elizabeth. 

Pipemaking in the early days of its introduction was a very 
different matter to what it is now. Then, the greater part of 
the manipulation was performed by the master, and twenty or 
twenty-four gross was the largest quantity ever burned in one 
kiln. Each pipe rested on its bowl, and the stem was sup- 
ported by rings of pipe-clay placed one upon the other as the 
kiln became filled ; the result was, that at least 20 per cent, 
were warped or broken in the kiln. At the present time, the 
preliminary preparation of the clay is performed by men, but 
the more delicate part is almost entirely entrusted to the hands 
of women. The pipes are placed in saggers to be burned, 
after the Dutch mode ; and from 350 to 400 gross, in one kiln, 
is not an uncommon quantity. The breakages at the present 
day amount to no more than one per cent. 

Usually the old pipes are perfectly plain, with the general 
exception of a milled border running round the mouth, this 
was impressed by hand, not in a mould. It may also be 
remarked, that the bowls of many of the older pipes are scraped 
into form, after having been modelled. 

About ninety years ago, the pipemakers began to stamp their 
names and residences on the stems of the pipes instead of the 
heels. 

At one time, it was supposed that the size of the bowl of the 
pipe afforded a guide to the date — the smaller the bowl, the 
earlier the date. The smallness of the bowl in some early 
specimens is remarkable, and the fairy origin of such pipes 
was a popular belief in England, Scotland, and Ireland. A 
" Fairy Pipe," engraved of its full size, is shown in Fig. 33. 





Fig. 33. "Fairy Pipe." Fig. 34. Period of Elizabeth. 

But it is not so much the size, as the fonii, of the bowl that 
helps us to determine the age of tobacco-pipes, although even 



Tobacco-pipes of the Period of James I, and Charles I. 75 



this cannot be entirely depended upon. The earliest form, 
which probably dates from the time of Elizabeth, is barrel- 
shaped. An Elizabethan pipe is sho\vn in Fig. 34, the original 
was found by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, in a cutting on Abbey 
Hill, near Derby ; and was given by him to the late Mr. 
Crofton Croker. As may be seen, this specimen bears on its 
heel a rose ; it is believed to be of Shropshire manufacture. 
Another example of an Elizabethan pipe is given in Fig. 35, 





Fig. 35, Period of Elizabeth. 



Fig. 36. Period of James I. 
AND Charles I. 



in this and other instances, when not stated to the contrary, 
the size of the original is reduced in the engraving. The form 
shown in Fig. 36 is of the period of James I. and Charles 
I., and does not materially differ in shape from the preceding 
specimens. The pipes shown in Fig. 5 1 are to be referred to 
the reign of Charles I. 





Fig. 37. Period of Charles I. 

Of the pipes of this period, a large variety of shapes might 
be adduced. In Fig. 38, Mr. Jewitt has given four examples 
taken from engravings of the period. The dates are, i, 1630; 
2, 1632 ; 3, 1640 ; 4, 1 64 1. No. 4 is of the same shape as 
those known to have been in use in the reign of Elizabeth ; 
the same form continued in use through several reigns. The 



*]6 Tobacco-pipes of the Period of the Commonwealth. 








^ 



Fig. 38. Fig. 40. 

1, 1630 ; 2, 1632 ; 3, 1640; 4, 1641. 1, 1650 ; 2, 1666 ; 3, 1688 ; 4, 1688 ; 5, 1669. 

usual shapes of the period, however, are those shown in i, 2, 
and 3. During the time of the Commonwealth and the reign 
of Charles the Second, the form of the bowl became more 
bulbous, as shown in Fig. 39, the original was found in 




Fig. 39. Period of the Commonwealth and Charles II. 

Devonshire. The examples given in Fig. 40, are copied 
principally from Tradesmen's tokens. One (2) will be seen to 
be of the form usually ascribed to William the Third's reign. 
The dates of these specimens are i, 1650; 5, 1666 (Dun- 
stable); 3, 1688 (Chipping Norton); 4, probably the same 
year (Southwark) ; 5, 1669 (Leeds). Pipes were made at 
Leeds from a peculiar vein of clay found there. 

Pipes of the reign of William III. seem, more usually, 
to have had bowls of the elongated form shown in Fig. 41. 
This seems to be confirmed from the circumstance, that at 
the place where William's Dutch troops were stationed, pipes 
of the forms shown in Fig. 42 are most abundant. Barrel- 
shaped bowls, however, were still in use, as may be seen by 
the dated example shown in Fig. 32. 

The long bowl continued in use to the middle of last 
century, and representations of them may be found on en- 
gravings of the period. It would seem that the form of the 
bowl gradually merged from the bulbous into the elongated 
form of the time of William III., and then passed on to the 



Tobacco-pipes of the Period of William III. 



77 





Fig. 41. 



Period of William III. 



Fig. 42. 



wide-mouthed shape of the present day. The heel also 
changed from the flat form — made to rest the pipe upon 
during use — to the long pointed " spur" now so common, 
and which is believed by some to have been introduced by 
the Dutch ; it is, however, to be seen on one of the pipes 
represented in Fig. 37. It must be remembered, however, 
that the Dutch were originally indebted to England for the 
introduction of pipe-making into their country. 

Sometimes the bowls of pipes were ornamented, but such 
specimens are extremely rare. Examples of ornamented pipes 
have already been given in Figs. 22 and 23. The pipe shown 
in Fig. 43 was found near Derby, and is in Mr. Jewitt's col- 
lection. In form it resembles the pipe shown in Fig. 36, and 
like it may belong to the reign of James I. or Charles I., the 
form of the letters helps to confirm this opinion. 




TTdEWITT. 

Fig. 43. Period of James I. and Charles I. 

It would not be difficult to enlarge on this subject, but the 
digression has probably been sufficient already. Let us then 
make our way to Vespasian's camp. 



78 Vespasian^ s Ca7tip, — Amesbury. — Stonehenge. 

VESPASIAN'S CAMP. 

This name was imposed by Stukeley, it is locally known as 
" The Ramparts." The work crowns a densely-wooded hill, 
which forms the principal feature in the view from the House. 
The natural position is a strong one, and it is further pro- 
tected on the eastern and southern sides by the Avon. The 
ancient lines of defence enclosed an area of 39 acres, and 
consisted of a single bank, now much mutilated on the eastern 
side, the defences on the western side are still bold and well- 
preserved. The camp, which is in the form of scalene triangle, 
may be a British work, possibly occupied and strengthened by 
the Romans when, under Vespasian, they were engaged in the 
conquest of the Belgae. 

It appears to have had two entrances — north and south — 
the former still remains perfect. The area of the camp is now 
divided by the high road which passes Stonehenge, and along 
which we shall proceed. Our next halt will be at 

STONEHENGE. 

We scarcely see Stonehenge from the best point of view in 
going to it by the road from Amesbury, it is seen to far greater 
advantage if we approach it by way of the Down from Lake 
House. Approach it as you may, however, Stonehenge pos- 
sesses the disadvantage of a reputation ; and when seen for 
the first time, the feeling is usually that of disappointment. A 
feeling which gives place to wonder and astonishment as the 
bulk of the masses of stone is realised, and our minds begin to 
be exercised as to the way in which these vast blocks have 
been transported to Salisbury Plain, and as to the means by 
which they were raised to their present position. The wide 
expanse of Down that surrounds Stonehenge has a tendency 
to dwarf its proportions ; "when viewed from a distance," says 
Mr. Fergusson, '' the vastness of the open tract in which 
Stonehenge stands takes considerably from its impressiveness, 
but when the observer gets close to its great monolithic masses 
the solitary situation lends it a grandeur which scarce any 
other building of its class can be said to possess."^ 

Then, again, the visitor frequently arrives at Stonehenge 
with his mind impressed by the simple architectural beauty of 



1 C( 



Quarterly Review," No. 215, p. 202. 



Stonehenge. 79 

Salisbury Cathedral — separated from it by some eight miles in 
space, but by what an immeasurable epoch in point of time 
and culture — there all was refinement, here is but the display 
of rude barbaric force ; it is like leaving the haunts of civiliza- 
tion, and — in a few hours — meeting with the savage in his 
freedom. And yet, the powerful lever of religious fervour 
prompted the erection of both temples, it is to be seen in the 
huge stony masses of Stonehenge, and in the heavenward 
pointing finger of Salisbury spire. " Salisbury Cathedral," 
writes Dr. Johnson, " and its neighbour Stonehenge are two 
eminent monuments of art and rudeness, and may show the 
first essay and the last perfection in architecture."^ But, 
Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral surely teach us more than 
this. Each testifies to the existence of a religious sentiment, 
that we would fain believe is present even in the lowest 
savage; and which, throughout the whole human family, 
differs but in kind and degree — as does "Our Lady Church" 
in the valley from the Titanic Temple on Salisbury Plain. 
Each structure is equally a prayer in stone, although the 
words of the one may be those of refinement and civiliza- 
tion, whilst those of the other are but the terse utterances of 
barbarism. 

Upon no other subject, probably, have so many opinions 
been expressed, as upon Stonehenge. Its erection has been 
attributed by various writers to the Phoenicians, to the Belgae, 
to the Romans, to the Romano-British, to the Saxons, and to 
the Danes. Nor would it be very surprising to learn that still 
another origin for it had been discovered, and that henceforth 
we are to regard Stonehenge as an assemblage of boulders that 
were drifting southward during the Glacial Period, falling in 
with an eddy, their ice-borne course was arrested, they settled 
down in a circle, the waters retired, and now these stranded 
masses afford us an interesting proof of the existence of exten- 
sive gyratory marine action, arising from the opposing forces of 
hot and cold currents during the Glacial Period ! 

Perhaps the greatest charm of Stonehenge is the mystery 
in which its origin and purpose are shrouded, and, in a 
certain way, evil will be the day that sees this veil lifted 
from it. 

The vast plain around Stonehenge is thickly dotted with 

1 Letter to Mrs. Thrale, written Oct. 9, 1783. 



8o " Historical Account of the Origin of Stonehe?ige. 

tumuli, which contain (or contained) the unknown dust of men 
of whom history tells us absolutely nothing : — 

" Antiquity appears to have begun, 
Long after their primseval race was run." 

To some extent, the gulf of this prehistoric past has been 
spanned by the bridge of investigation ; but, after all that has 
been written about Stonehenge, in many respects it still remains 
a sphinx-riddle to archaeologists ; on the other hand, the 
popular mind has evolved its history, strongly tinctured of 
course with the marvellous. So sacred are these stones that, 
" it is generally averred hereabouts," writes Aubrey, " that 
pieces of them putt into their Wells, doe drive away the 
Toades, with which their wells are much infested, and this 
course they use still. It is also averred that no Magpye, 
Toade, or Snake was ever seen here." But Aubrey spoils all 
by adding the following explanation, " this is easy to be 
believed ; for birds of weake flight will not be beyond their 
power of reaching some Convert for fear of their enemies, 
Hawkes and Ravens ; whereas no Convert is neer a mile and 
a halfe of this place. As for the Toades they will not goe 
beyond a certain distance from the water by reason of 
spawning, and Snakes and Adders doe love convert." 

The "historical" account of Stonehenge is to be found re- 
corded by the great British-Mythologist, Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth, who gave his work to the world before the year 1139. 
According to this, Aurelius Ambrosius, wishing "to com- 
memorate those who had fallen in battle,"^ sent for Merlin, in 
order to consult with him as to the erection of a monument to 
their memory. Merlin's suggestion was as follows : — " If you 
are desirous to honour the burying-place of these men with an 
everlasting monument, send for the ' Giant's Dance,' which is 
in Killaraus (Kildare), a mountain in Ireland. For there is a 
structure of stones there, which none of this age could raise 
without a profound knowledge of the mechanical arts. They 
are stones of a vast magnitude, and wonderful quality ; and if 
they can be placed here, as they are there, quite round this 
spot, they will stand for ever." At these words, Aurelius burst 
out into laughter, and said, " How is it possible to remove 
such large stones from so distant a country, as if Britain was 

1 The British nobles whom Hengist, the Saxon, is alleged to have 
treacherously murdered at, or near, Ambresbury. 



Dr. Guesfs Explanation of the Legend. 8i 

not furnished with stones fit for the work." MerHn replied that 
they were mystical stones, and of a medicinal virtue ; and so, 
at last, it was decided to fetch the stones and, if need be, bring 
them away by force, should the people of Ireland offer to 
detain them. After defeating the Irish, the Britons proceeded 
to Killaraus ; and, as they were gathered around the " Giant's 
Dance," Merlin tauntingly said, '' Now try your forces, young 
men, and see whether strength or art can do more towards 
taking down these stones." So they set to work, but all to no 
purpose. Merlin laughed at their vain efforts, and, at last, 
himself " took down the stones with an incredible facility, and 
withal gave directions for carrying them to the ships, and 
placing them therein. This done, they with joy set sail again 
to return to Britain, where they arrived with a fair gale, and 
repaired to the burial-place with the stones." Aurelius sum- 
moned all his people to celebrate the erecting of the monu- 
ment, which was effected by Merlin, who "placed them in the 
same manner as they had been in the Mount of Killaraus, and 
thereby gave a manifest proof of the prevalence of art abov r 
strength."^ This story held its ground for 500 years. A pj^- 
bable explanation of the legend of Merlin and the "Giant's 
Dance" has been suggested by Dr. Guest, according to this : — 
" Amesbury signified the burgh of Ambres or Ambrosius — and 
upon the authority of the Welsh triads, was once the seat of a 
great monastery, one of the three chief perpetual choirs of the 
isle of Britain," as already mentioned in my notes on Ames- 
bury. In the older Welsh poems there are allusions to a 
conflict that took place about some nawt, or sanctuary. "It 
has been keenly contested that these allusions refer to the 
massacre of the British nobles by Hengist, and that the nawt 
was the heathen sanctuary of Stonehenge. . . I would 
venture to suggest that this celebrated Jiawt may have been the 
Christian monastery instead of the heathen temple, and that 
the legend which makes Stonehenge the work of Ambrosius, 
may have arisen from his having built or re-edified one of the 
'Choirs of Britain' in its immediate neighbourhood. An 
attempt on the part of the invaders to surprise this monastery 
— probably during one of its great festivals — may have given 
rise to the charge of a treacherous massacre ; and Hengist 

^ The whole account, given in the words of Thompson's translation, re- 
printed from Sir R. Hoare, is given by Mr. Long, " Wilts Mag.," vol. xvi.,, 
pp. 9— II. 

G 



82 Aubrey and Pepys visit Stoneheiige. 

would naturally figure in the tale, as being the Saxon chief 
best known to Welsh fable. The story seems to have been a 
favorite fiction in the sixth and seventh centuries, for it is also 
told of the Saxons who invaded Thuringia. . . The choir 
of Ambrosius was probably the monastery of Britain — the 
centre from which flowed the blessings of Christianity and 
civilisation. Around Amesbury the Briton was fighting for all 
that was dearest to him ; and thus may we account for the 
desperate resistance which enabled him to maintain a weak 
frontier for nearly sixty years, within little more than twenty 
miles of Winchester." " If the massacre at Amesbury," writes 
Mr. Long,^ "was a massacre of Christians, Stonehenge was 
hardly the kind of monument which would have been erected 
to commemorate their dead by Christian survivors and suc- 
cessors." 

Both Aubrey and Pepys visited Stonehenge, but neither of 
them seems to have been favourably impressed with the Plain, 
which, on the other hand, delighted Evelyn,^ who thus writes 
of it : — " we passed over the goodly plain, or rather sea of 
carpet, which I think for evenness, extent, verdure, and innu- 
merable flocks, to be one of the most delightful prospects ' in 
nature." Aubrey appears to have had the old Wiltshire saying 
in his mind : — 

" Salisbury Plain, Salisbury Plain, 
Seldom without a thief or twain." 

" About six miles from Salisbury," writes Aubrey, " in the 
plaines before named (they are but rarely inhabited and had in 
late time a bad name for Robberies there committed) is to be 
seen a huge and monstrous piece of worke, Stonehenge." It 
was the steepness of the hills that alarmed poor Pepys, who, 
in his own words : — "not being able to hire coach-horses, and 
not willing to use our own, we got saddle-horses, very dear. 
Boy that went to look for them 6d. So the three women 
behind, W. Hewer, Murford, and our guide ; and I single to 
Stonehenge, over the plain and some great hills, even to fright 
us. Come thither, and find them as prodigious as any tales I 
ever heard of them, and worth going this journey to see. God 
knows what their use was : they are hard to tell, but yet may 
be told. Gave the shepherd-7£/^w^;/, for leading our horses, 

1 " Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 13. 
• 2 In 1654. Pepys visited Stonehenge, June ii, 166S. 



Descriptio7i of Stonehenge. 



83 



4d." And we have not advanced much in our knowledge of 
the original purpose of the monument since the days of Pepys, 
the story is still "hard to tell" — " but yet may be told." Some 
insist that Stonehenge was a monument erected in memory of 
the dead, others are equally persuaded that it was a temple. 
If a monument : — 

" 111 did those mighty men to trust thee with their story, 
Thou hast forgot their names, who rear'd thee for their gloiy : 
For all their wondrous cost, thou hast se^-y'd them so, 
What 'tis to trust to tombs, by thee we eas'ly know." 





Fig. 44. Stonehenge, as it (peobably) was. 

My own impression is that Stonehenge was a temple, and 
some of the evidence which has led me to this conclusion will 
be brought forward in the following pages. 

In looking at Stonehenge we should remember that we are 
beholding a ruin, which has to be re-constructed in the mind's 
eye ; Fig. 44 may help us to do this, no very difficult task, for 

G 2 



84 The ^^ Slaughtering Stone''' at StoJtehenge. 

" there is as much of it undemoHshed," says Stukeley, " as 
enables us sufficiently to recover its form, when it was in its 
most perfect state ; there is enough of every part to preserve 
the idea of the whole." 

DESCRIPTION OF STONEHENGE. 

Stonehenge stands in the middle of a circular boundary, 300 
feet in diameter, formed by throwing up a slight bank with a 
shallow ditch outside. This bank is about 100 feet from the 
outer circle of stones. The bank cuts through a low barrow 
on the north-west side, and it embraces another low barrow on 
the opposite side, from which circumstance it appears that 
these tumuli were in existence befoj-e the surrounding earth- 
work at Stonehenge was formed. Two stones are to be seen on 
the edge of the embankment, but there are no indications of 
other stones having been similarly placed on the margin of 
this earth-work. 

The entrance to Stonehenge is on the north-east, and is 
marked by a bank and ditch forming an avenue which leads 
directly to the temple. At a short distance from the entrance 
to the outer circle of stones, and within the area enclosed by 
the circular bank, lies a prostrate stone (21 feet in length), 
this is popularly known as the "slaughtering stone." This 
stone does not appear to have been fully trimmed into its 
destined shape, the row of holes worked across one corner was 
evidently intended to weaken the stone in a desired line of 
fracture — to enable an unsightly corner to be taken off, and 
so to render the form more symmetrical. Why this was not 
accomplished we cannot tell, but it militates against the late 
Mr. Cunnington's theory that it, at one time, stood erect.^ 
These holes on the " slaughtering stone"^ deserve rather more 
than a passing notice. They have evidently been drilled by 
artificial means, and with the intention of dividing the stone 
in the line of the indentations. At the present day, it is the 
custom with the stone-hewers on Dartmoor, to drill holes 
across a block of granite that they wish to divide. A sudden 

» See Mr. Long's paper, "Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi,, pp. 56, 57. The 
roofing- stones of some dolmens appear to have been trimmed into shape 
after they had been placed in position, but that was evidently to save 
trouble, it would increase the trouble to trim a monolith into shape after it 
was erected. 

■- So called from a popular idea that victims were immolated upon it. . 



IV/ial tools were used by ike builders of Stonehengel 85 



blow will then cause the mass to separate in the desired direc- 
tion. On Dartmoor, the indentations are made by means of 
a chisel-shaped instrument termed a "jumper." A rotatory 
motion is communicated to the tool, the result of which, of 
course, is that the indentations are circular. The indentations, 



B 
o o 




<y^ 



o 



A. 



■y^. 





ri 



o 



^ 



o 





o 

B 




H 



u 

N 

H 



o 



i-V 



mmmmmmm^f 






A 

SCALE 

j 30 f^to the imcm 
Fig. 45. Ground-plan of Stonehenge, as it (probably) was. 



iBE^ld 



however, in the " slaughtering stone" are oval, and this tends 
to show that the instrument used was sharp pointed (a pick), 
not chisel-shaped, and that the holes were produced by a series 
of taps or blows, and not by a rotating edge. This fact is of 
importance as bearing on the question of the material of which 
the " jumper" was made, and, by consequence, of the state of 
culture of the people by whom such tools were in ordinary use. 



86 The " Friar's HeeF at Stonehenze. 



■iy"- 



If the indentations had been circular in form, it might have 
been fair to have argued that the "jumper" used was in shape 
and material not very unlike that now employed on Dartmoor. 
But, as the indentations on the " slaughtering stone" are not of 
circular form, we are led to infer that the holes were produced 
by the process known as " pecking," and that the tool employed 
is as likely to have been of flint, as of bronze or iron. 

To the north-east of the " slaughtering stone," and directly 
in the entrance line to the circles at Stonehenge, stands erect 
an unwrought sarsen monolith, i6 feet in height, popularly 
called "The Friar's Heel." A person standing on the so-called 
" Altar Stone," (E on Fig. 45) at the summer solstice, will see 
the sun (if it is to be seen at all) rise immediately over the 
" Friar's Heel," the top of which stone exactly coincides with 
the line of the horizon. The theory that the builders of Stone- 
henge worshipped the sun as a great life-giving principle, as a 
symbol of the Creator, receives some support from this fact. 
Unwrought monoliths, such as the " Friar's Heel," seem also, 
at some period, to have been universally regarded as symbols 
of the Creator.^ 

^ " In the island of Skye in every district there is to be met with a rude 
stone consecrated to Gruagach or Apollo. The Rev. Mr. McQueen of 
Skye says that in almost every village the sun, called Grugach, or Fair- 
haired, is represented by a rude stone ; and he further adds that libations 
of milk were poured on the ' grugach-stones. ' " (Lubbock, ' ' Origin of 
Civilization," p. 210.) 

It would be far beyond the scope of the present work to enter upon the 
subject of the worship of " Stones" — especially of earth-fast unwrought 
pillar-stones. It seems, however, to have very generally prevailed. In the 
West India Islands, Herrera mentions that, three stones were especial 
objects of worship to the natives — one was profitable for the crops, another 
was worshipped by women, and the third gave sunshine and rain when 
needed. Stone-worship still exists in India, chiefly among the non-Hindu 
races. The groups of standing-stones in India are, in many instances, set 
up for each stone to represent a deity. In Southern India, five stones are 
often to be seen in the ryot's field, placed in a row and daubed with red 
paint, these are considered to be the guardians of the field, and are called 
the five Pandus. 

Instances of the " survival" of stone-worship are not wanting. There 
was an unwrought stone {xiQos kp-ybs) at Hyettos, which ' ' after the ancient 
manner represented Herakles ; there were thirty such stones which the 
Pharteans, in like archaic fashion, worshipped for the gods. Theophrastus, 
in the fourth century B.C., depicts the superstitious Greek passing the 
anointed stones in the streets, taking out his phial and pouring oil on them, 
falling on his knees to adore, and going his way. Six centuries later, 
Arnobius could describe from his own heathen life the state of mind of a 



Popular Accoimt of the Origin of StoneJienge. 87 

Had the " slaughtering stone" ever stood erect, it would, 
as suggested by Mr. William Cunnington, F.G.S., have been 
impossible for a person, standing on the " altar stone" to 
have seen the sun rise over the " gnomon" (Friar's Heel). 

The " Friar's Heel" occupies a distinguished position in the 
legendary history of Stonehenge The story was told me, 
some years since, by my valued friend Mr. W. Hatcher, son of 
the well-known Historian of Salisbury. It is as follows. 

The Devil is said to have determined, one evening, to do 
some work on the earth which should astonish and puzzle all 
beholders. A later version of the old story added that, he 
came to this resolution while vexed and annoyed at the circum- 
stance that an Exciseman had in some way slipped through his 
fingers. It appears that the Devil had seen some huge stones 
standing in the garden belonging to an old woman, in Ireland, 
and these he determined to transport to Salisbury Plain — this 
being the most unlikely place, he could think of, on which 
such stones could be found. 

His request to be allowed to remove the stones was refused 
by the old woman, until she was bribed by the assurance that, 
she should have as much money as she could count and add 
up while the removal was being effected. The bargain being 
completed, the Devil handed to her a quantity of pieces of 
money, some worth 4)4d. and others 2^d. Not being a good 
hand at addition, she had not accomplished the summation of 
the two first, when her negotiator shouted to her to stop, and 
on looking round she found that the stones were all removed. 
The purchaser had tied them into a neat bundle with a withe, 
and slinging this over his shoulder, he flew away with his 
burden in the direction of Salisbury Plain. But the load was 
a heavy one — even for ///;//, the withe wrung his shoulder very 
uncomfortably, and, as he flew over Bulford water, he had to 
give it a hitch up — when, out fell one of the stones and 
plumped down into the water beneath — there it still remains, 

" stone worshipper," and he tells us that, when he saw one of these stones 
anointed with oil, he accosted it in flattering words, and asked benefits 
from it. The following passage from Isaiah shows the existence of stone- 
worship among the Jews. 

" Among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion ; 
They, they are thy lot : 

Even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering, 
Hast thou offered a meat-offering," 



88 Desaiption of Stonehenge. 

according to popular belief, to attest the truth of the occur- 
rence.^ 

No further mischance took place, but the Devil was right 
glad to relieve himself of his burden when he reached Salis- 
bury Plain. He at once busied himself to set up the stones, 
and was at length so delighted at the progress he had made, 
that he exclaimed aloud, " Now I'll puzzle all men, for no one 
knows, nor ever will know, how these stones have come here." 
Unlucky chance — a friar, who was walking near, evidently a 
Wiltshireman, heard the foolish boast, and shouted out — 
" that's more than thee can tell," and then turned and fled for 
his life. At the moment, the Devil was poising a huge stone 
in his hand, and, enraged at the insolence of the Friar, this 
was sent whizzing through the air after the holy man — it struck 
him on his uplifted heel, but so holy a man was he, that it did 
not hurt him in the least. On the contrary, it was the stone 
that suffered, for the Friar's heel indented the stone, and there 
the impression is still to be seen — by the faithful — in con- 
firmation of the story. Nothing daunted by the failure of his 
first attempt, the Devil was proceeding to hurl a second stone 
after the Friar — when, at that moment, the sun rose over the 
hills, the Devil was forced to flee and leave the stones as they 
stood — some put together, others lying about in confusion. 
The Evil One was so vexed at his discomfiture that he has 
never come back to finish his work. Hence the present 
scattered appearance of the stones. 

Aubrey seems to have heard a somewhat different version of 
this legend, he also appears to have mistaken the " slaughtering 
stone" for the "Friar's Heel" stone. "One of the great 
stones," he says, " that lies downe, on the west^ side, hath a 
cavity resembling the print of a man's foot : concerning which 
the Shepherds and Country people have a Tradition (wch 
many of them doe stedfastly believe) that when Merlin con 
veyed these Stones from Ireland by Art Magick, the Devill 
hitt him in the heele with that stone, and so left the print 
there." 

The plan of Stonehenge seems to have consisted of stones 
so placed as to form two figures — a horse-shoe, surrounded by 

^ " As I remember," writes Aubrey, " there is a great stone that lies in 
the water at Fighelden as left by the way to Stonehenge." 

"Query, "north-east." 



Description of Stoiiehenge. 89 

a circle, as shown i/ Figs. 44 and 45- These figures are 
repeated — in one instance the stones employed are of local 
origin (A and C in Fig. 45,) in the other they consist of 
varieties of rock not geologically present in the district (B and 
D on Fig. 45). Nor is this the only distinction between the 
two sets of figures. The stones (sarsen) of local origin are 
all of them of considerable size, and have all been dressed and 
squared '} whereas the foreign stones are comparatively small, 
and (perhaps) those which form the circle have not been 
worked at all.- Then again the idea in the construction of the 
two sets of figures is different. The foreign stones have all 
(with perhaps one exception) been set up on end as mono- 
liths; but the local stones have imposts placed upon them, and 
these stones are secured in their relative position by means of 
a mortise-and-tenon arrangement — the idea is no longer that 
of the monoHth, but that of the trilithon. 

It is supposed that, originally, the outer circle consisted of 
thirty upright stones, and the same number of stones laid 
horizontally upon them so as to form a perfect continuous 
circle; these are all sarsen stones, such as are found in 
abundance in North Wiltshire. ^ Seventeen uprights, and six 
imposts retain their original position, see Fig. 46, and to judge 
from the uprights still standing, these stones must have stood 
about 1 2 feet 7 inches out of the ground, their average breadth 
6 feet, and their thickness 3 feet 6 inches. Those in the circle 
resting on the uprights are about 10 feet long, 3 feet 6 inches 
wide, and 2 feet 8 inches in thickness. The upright stones 
have each two tenons on their upper surface, see details on 
Fig. 45 (F— G), which fit into mortise-holes cut into the under 
surface of the horizontal stones. The opening between the 

1 " With the exception of the " Friars Heel" stone. 

- Mr. Long and Mr. Cunnington express the opinion that the syenitic 
blocks have been worked, but that those of horn-stone have not been 
worked.— "AV I Its. Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 233. 

=* Aubrey says of these stones, "the tradition amongst the common 
people is that these stones were brought from Ireland, as aforesayd, by the 
conjuration of Merlin, whereas indeed they are of the very same kind of 
stones with the (Jrey Weathers, about fourteen miles off; that tract of 
ground towards Marleborough (from lience) lieing scattered over with them 
greater and lesse (as by a Vulcano) for al>out twenty miles in compasse. 
In another place he says, " they arc tlie stones of the Grayweathers, distant 
from hence not above fourteen miles, where there are thousands of such 
stones to be drawn out of the earth. They were brought hither on 
Rowlers." 





^^,»;^>-v\«i 








j\ 





^ 



c::J ^ 



SCALE 



O 




30 FTTOTHE IllCH 

Pig. 46. Ground-plan of Stonehenge, as it is. 

upright stones of the outer circle is about 4 feet/ and the 
diameter of the circle is 100 feet within the stones. The two 
tenons, to produce which much labour must have been ex- 
pended, are towards the ends of the upper surface of each 
upright stone in the outer circle; only one tenon is present on 
each upright of the horse-shoe, and that is situated in the middle 
of the upper surface, see details in Fig. 45 (H — I) ; a difference 
which arose from the circumstance that while the imposts of 
the outer circle stretched as a continuous line along the top of 
the uprights, the imposts of the horse-shoe were never intended 
to be carried round the figure in a continuous line ; the five 
grand trilithons were intended to stand separate and apart from 



^ According to Mr. Long, the width of the opening between the stones 
numbered A i and A 2 on Hoare's plan is 4 feet 4 inches. 



Fall of two of the Great Trilithons. 91 

each other ; it may be, each triUthon a symbol in itself, and all 
five teogther forming another symbol of well-known import, the 
horse-shoe or crescent. 

Mr. Henry Browne (Amesbury) was of opinion that the 
imposts of the outer circle '' had been fitted together, at their 
extremities, by corresponding projectures and hollows," as 
shown in Fig. 47.^ This opinion is confirmed by Mr. Long, 










Fig. 47. Plan showing the way in which the imposts op the outer 

CIRCLE dovetail INTO EACH OTHER. 

who visited Stonehenge in April, 1876, in company with 
Captain Long, Mr. Cunnington and Mr. Edwards of Amesbury; 
and I have also noticed this arrangement. 

At a distance of about 9 feet within the outer circle, stood 
some thirty or forty monoliths (foreign stone), arranged in a 
circle (B on Fig 45), each about 4 feet in height ; very few of 
these are now standing upright, they are of rude and irregular 
shape, and probably are unwrought. 

Within the inner circle stands (or stood) the most imposing 
feature of Stonehenge, the five great triHthons (C on Fig. 45). 
They are all sarsen stones (local), and are arranged in the form 
of a horse-shoe, with the opening to the north-east. 

These great trilithons rise gradually in height towards the 
south-west. The first group, on the left-hand side of the horse- 
shoe as you enter, being sixteen feet three inches in height ; 
the next, on the same side, seventeen feet two inches ; and the 
central group, twenty-one feet six inches. Aubrey, in his 
" Monumenta Britannica," attributes the overthrow of this 
grand central trilithon to the researches made in the year 
1620, by George, Duke of Buckingham, who, when James I. 
was at Wilton, " did cause the middle of Stonehenge to be 
digged, and this underdigging was the cause of the falling 
downe, or recumbency of the great stone there, twenty-one 
foote long." 

The group next the central trilithon, on the north-western 
side, fell on the third of January, 1797. A strange concussion 

* Copied from "Wilts Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 93. 



jsssk 



■^TT^^imi 







^'^'»lM.i'*•■"''>i"/*ll''■'■■""!' ' 

Fig. 48. T is Great Trilithon. 



Foreign Stone, having two cavities, at Stojiehenge. 93 

or jarring of the ground was felt by some men who were 
ploughing fully half-a-mile distant from Stonehenge ; this was 
occasioned, as they afterwards perceived, by the fall of this 
trilithon.i It fell outwards, as may be seen by reference to 
Fig. 46, and it still remains where it fell. _ The immediate 
cause seems to have been a sudden and rapid thaw, which set 
in the day before the stones fell; but it appears that some 
gipsies had, in the preceding autumn, contributed not a litde 
to the catastrophe by digging away the soil on the western 
side of this trilithon, in order to obtain more shelter for their 

tent. 

" It was upon the top of the trilithon, mimediately to the 
left (the south-east) of the altar-stone, to one entering from 
the avenue, that ' my Lord Winchilsea and Dr. Stukeley took 
a considerable walk,' but the latter adds 'it was a frightful 

situation.' "^ 

Within the horse-shoe figure formed by the great trilithon s 
is a second horse-shoe figure composed of monoliths (foreign 
stoned (D on Fig. 45). There were originally 15 or more of 
these' monoliths, of an average height of 8 feet, these stones 
also, like the great trilithons, gradually increase in height 
toward what was, perhaps, the most important and sacred part 
of the temple, where lies the so-called " altar stone " (E on 
Fig. 45). The monoliths composing the inner horse-shoe have 
evfdently been wrought into their present pointed pyramidal 
form, one of them has a groove cut down its side, for what 
purpose is not apparent. 

The "altar stone" (E on Fig. 45) is (or rather, was, when 
entire) sixteen feet two inches in length, three feet two inches 
in width, and one foot nine inches in thickness. It was com- 
pletely broken in two by the fall of the impost of the great 
trilithon.^ 

On the left-hand side, as one enters the inner circle from 
the north-east is a recumbent stone (foreign) with two basin- 

1 Full details are given in Mr. Long's paper, "Wilts Mag.," vol. xvi., 

PP« 79 — Si- . r 

2 Mr. Long, " Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 62. 

3 In reference to the so-called " altar-stone" now at Stonehenge, it may 
be mentioned that Aubrey tells us, " Philip Earle of Pembroke did say, 
that an Altar Stone was found in the middle of the Area here (Stone- 
henge) ; and that it was carried away to St. James' (Westminster), and he 
also sad, that upon the digging of the Duke of Buckingham, were found 
here Stagges-hornes and Bull's homes and Charcoales." 



94 Stonehenge erected at Two Periods. 

like cavities worked into the surface now turned uppermost 
(see Fig. 46). 

The stone is remarkable from being the only foreign stone at 
Stonehenge in which a cavity has been wrought. It is usual to 
regard these two cavities as mortise-holes ; but we are still 
very much in the dark as to the purpose to which this 
particular stone was applied, even as to the position it occupied 
in the original structure. If Stonehenge was erected at two 
distinct periods, the horse- shoe and circle of foreign stone 
probably formed the earlier temple. It may even have been 
erected elsewhere at some former period, and then transported 
to Salisbury Plain and again set up. An intrusive and con- 
quering people may have brought these hallowed stones with 
them, and have added to the impressive appearance of their 
old temple, in its new situation, by repeating its features on a 
far larger scale, using local stone for the purpose. This idea 
was in Canon Jackson's mind, when he compared the horse- 
shoe and circle of foreign stone at Stonehenge to " the Casa 
Santa at Loreto, a small cottage said to have been the Virgin 
Mary's house at Nazareth, but now enshrined in a magnificent 
church ; so these obelisks, possessing some great traditional 
value, were transported hither, and enshrined in a coronet of 
the mightiest Grey Wethers that Wiltshire could produce." 

In Figs. 49 and 50, I have reproduced the chromo-litho- 
graphic plans of Stonehenge, given by Mr. Long,^ substituting 
distinctive shading for colours. I cannot help thinking, however, 
that the triple arrangement of monoliths, represented (in Fig. 
49) as standing before each of the great trilithons in the outer 
horse-shoe is incorrect ; for some of the monoliths now standing 
depart from this arrangement, and occupy the interspaces, as 
may be seen in Figs. 46 and 50. Perhaps, the restoration 
shown in Fig. 45 is not very far wrong. I have ventured to 
omit the foreign trilithon shown in Mr. Long's plan, for reasons 
hereafter to be given. 

In Fig. 49 may be seen, at a glance, the " Casa Santa" of 
Canon Jackson, represented in solid black ; whilst the shaded 
stones form "the coronet of Grey Wethers." The present 
position occupied by the foreign, and the local stones, may be 
seen in Fig. 50. 

But to return to the prostrate foreign stone with two cavities 
(shown in Fig. 46) near the first great trilithon on the north- 



1 a 



Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 54. 



Stoiiehenge erected at Tivo Periods, 



95 




l3 fine micaceous sandstone 



WILTSHIRE SARSEN STONE 



DIABASE AND OTHER PRIMITIVE ROCKS 

Fig. 49. Stonehenge as it may have been ; showing the relative 

POSITIONS OF THE FOREIGN AND THE LOCAL STONES. AfTER Mr. LoNG. 

eastern side of Stonehenge. It is only on the local stones that 
mortise-holes exist. These two cavities in the prostrate foreign 
stone are too far from the ends of this particular stone, and too 
close together, to justify our comparing it with the imposts of 
the outer circle, or outer horse-shoe. Besides, is it not sur- 
prising that whilst this supposed impost has been preserved, 
no trace remains of either of the syenitic uprights upon which 
it rested ? There is not, I believe, a single foreign stone with 
a tenon at Stonehenge, and yet, in the model of Stonehenge 
(restored) at Lake House, four such pillar stones are re- 
presented ; in the ground-plan, shown in Fig. 51, there are 
six such placed at the entrance to the great horseshoe, and in 
Mr. Long's chromo-lithograph there are two such pillar-stones, 



96 Veiitratio7i of Stones with Jioles worked in them, 

Sv w 




Fig. 50. Stonehenge as it is ; showing the present positions of 

THE FOREIGN AND THE LOCAL STONES. AfTEB Mr. LoNG. 

and all this rests upon the discovery of a single stone at Stone- 
henge, having two cavities worked in it. This stone, however, 
is quite as likely to have served for an altar as for an impost, 
and the cavities may have been intended to receive libations 
or offerings of some kind. Stones with holes worked in their 
upper surface still receive superstitious veneration in parts of 
Sweden. Near a town, called Linde, abutting on a forest-path 
which leads to Bohrs Forge, is an earth-fast stone {Jordfast 
sten), popularly known as " The Elf-Stone ;" it is nine feet in 
length, about seven in breadth, and four in height, and has 
upon its flat upper surface six small holes. The women of the 
neighbourhood, when a child is ill (or as they suppose " elf- 
struck"), visit this stone, smear the holes with fat or butter, 
and then place in them, as offerings, small dolls (called t^vll- 
dockor) made of rags. Near Tjursaker Court (or farm), in 
Our-Lady-kirk parish, near Enkoping, is a mass of rock in 
which there is a cup-shaped cavity, it is known as " The Elf- 
Pot" {df-gryta). The women of the neighbourhood make it a 
special errand on Thursday evenings to visit the "elf-pot," and 
" to anoint for the sick" {sni6rjafo7' sjukd) with hog's lard, and 



The Petrology of the Stofiehenge Stones. 



97 



^ 



<^ 






^ 



<*> ^ ^ 



\^A 



% 



I 
\ 



ft 



% % 



5^ 



^ 



Fig. 51. Ground-plan of Stonehenge (restored), i 

then to offer in the " elf-pot" a pin, or some other object, that 
has been used by the sick person. ^ I venture to suggest, 
therefore, that some further attention be given to this subject, 
before we jump to the conclusion that this foreign block of 
stone was an impost — and nothing more. 

THE PETROLOGY OF THE STONEHENGE STONES. 

Among what are called the lower Tertiaries, are certain sands 
and mottled clays (known as the Woolwich and Reading 
beds, from being largely developed near those places) and 
it is from these beds that the '' sarsens" (or local stones), 
used at Stonehenge, have been obtained. Sarsens are rarely 
found hi situ^ owing to the destruction of the beds to which 
they belonged ; for they are merely masses of sand concreted 
together by a silicious cement — the looser portions of the 
deposit have been washed away, but the blocks — the sarsens — 
were too heavy to be removed by flood-waters, and so they 
have remained stranded, often in countless numbers, as near 

* This differs but little from the restoration proposed . by Dr. Smith' 
See Hoare, " Anc. Wilts," vol. i., p. 151. 

- " Notes and Queries," 4th series, Feb. 12, 1870, Quoted from 
Hylten Cavallius, " Warend och Wirdarne." 

H 



98 The Tools used at Stonehenge. 

Clatford in North Wilts ; occupying the lower level of the 
valley, and winding downward in a mighty stream with every 
sinuosity of those upland valleys in which they occur. Sarsen 
stones are sometimes found in situ, as at the cliffs of St. 
Marguerite, near Dieppe. Several years since I was told that 
masses of concretionary stone are found at some place near 
Virginia Water ; the loose soil is tested with iron bars, and 
when a stone is struck, it is dug out, and used for building, 
and other purposes. 

With regard to the foreign stones at Stonehenge they are 
chiefly of syenite (composed of quartz, felspar, and horn- 
blende). A silicious schist, and greenstones have also been 
observed at Stonehenge. The " altar-stone" is a fine-grained 
micaceous sandstone. The foreign stones closely resemble 
the igneous rocks of the Lower Silurian region of North Pem- 
brokeshire and of Caernarvonshire, although it does not at all 
follow that they were obtained from thence. Professor Ten- 
nant sees in them a strong resemblance to the greenstones and 
syenites of the Channel Islands. 

A very remarkable feature at Stonehenge is the presence of 
these stones, which have evidently been brought from a dis- 
tance, for, usually, megalithic structures are formed of material 
to be found close at hand. 

That these masses of stone would not have been transported 
to Salisbury Plain except under the influence of some strong 
religious or superstitious feeling is almost certain ; and as Mr. 
Cunnington has well observed : — " this goes far to prove that 
Stonehenge was originally a temple, and neither a monument 
raised to the dead, nor an astronomical calendar or almanac. 
In either of these latter cases, there would have been no 
motive for seeking the materials elsewhere. The sarsens 
would have answered every purpose, with less labour, and 
with better effect." 

WHAT TOOLS WERE EMPLOYED FOR WORKING 
THE STONES AT STONEHENGE? 

Mr. Long has brought together a mass of information tending 
to show how the stones may have been transported from a 
distance to their present resting-place at Stonehenge,^ and he 
also mentions the probable manner in which the stones were 



1 (( 



Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., pp. no — 116. 



The Tools used at Stonehenge. 99 

squared and the mortises and tenons wrought.^ The opinion 
of WiUiam Smith (the geologist) and of Dr. Thurnam, that 
friction had been resorted to in, at least, finishing the mortises 
and tenons is cited. With reference to this, I would ask the 
visitors to carefully examine the mortise-holes of the fallen 
impost of the great trilithon, for in them are still, distinctly, to 
be traced the pitted markings of the pointed tool by means of 
which these cavities were formed. In comparatively modern 
times, the deepening of such holes in blocks of hard stone pre- 
sented no insuperable difficulty to the stone-using people in- 
habiting the north-west coast of America. In the Blackmore 
Collection may be seen a series of stone mortars, from 
California chiefly ; these are, for the most part, large water- 
worn boulders, in which cavities (very like those in the imposts 
at Stonehenge) have been wrought by means of a pointed 
stone tool. These mortars have been in use for crushing 
maize, and consequently the tool-marks are obliterated at the 
bottom of the cavity, whilst the friction of the stone pestle has 
worn away the tool-marks towards the mouth of the mortars, 
but at the sides the tool-marks are still to be seen, and they 
very closely resemble those to be seen in the mortises of the 
fallen impost at Stonehenge. 

It is more than probable that Stonehenge was erected by a 
bronze-using people ; but tools of bronze have been practically 
shown to be less efficient in working stone, than tools of flint, '-^ 

^ I have elsewhere entered upon the subject of working hard varieties 
of stone with tools of flint, of bronze, and of iron. See "Flint Chips," 

PP; 495» 496. 

- In the Museum of St. Gennain (France) are some blocks of granite, 
upon which figures have been cut, similar to those to be seen on slabs of the 
same material, to be found in several of the dolmens in Brittany, such as 
Gavr' Inis. The figures in the St. Germain specimens have been wrought, 
by way of experiment, with an ancient flint tool, within the last eight or 
nine years. The tised tool is placed by the side of the work accomplished 
by means of it. Other sculptures have been wrought with an ajicient bronze 
tool, and this is also exhibited ; the superiority of the flint tool for such a 
purpose is abundantly proved by the present condition of the two imple- 
ments. A similar experiment was made in Scotland, by Mr. R. Paul, at 
the request of the late Sir James Simpson ; and the result is still to be seen 
in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. The material, in which the figures 
were cut, was hard Aberdeen granite ; the tools used were o. flint pick and 
a wooden malet. The flint pick was about three inches in length, an inch 
in breadth, and about a quarter of an inch in thickness. In the course of 
the work, the sharp tip of the flint, from time to time, broke off j but 
another sharp edge was produced by the fracture, rendering grinding un- 
necessary. (Simpson, "Brit. Archaic Sculpturings.") 

H 2 



loo Tra?isport of the Stones to Stonehenge. 

and, it is quite consistent with what we know of the Bronze 
Age elsewhere, to suppose that the more efficient tool, whether 
of bronze or of flint, would have been employed by the " sup- 
posed" bronze-using builders of Stonehenge. 

I may here mention that, it seems generally to be expected, 
that numerous chippings of the stones should be found m the 
immediate neighbourhood of Stonehenge; the idea, apparently, 
being that the stones were dressed into shape on the spot, a 
conclusion which is not yet established ; and, in fact, is not 
supported by any evidence, either direct or by analogy. The 
blocks of Carrara marble which, in the present day, are tran- 
sported from the Tiber to the artists' studio in Rome, are 
" divested previously of all unnecessary bulk." And, if we 
enquire as to the transport of the colossal stone figures of 
Assyria and Egypt, we shall find that the masses were not only 
squared, but also sculptured, before they were dragged from 
the quarry, with very slight mechanical assistance, and by 
manual labour. 

Nor is it likely that the builders of Stonehenge would have 
dragged a needlessly bulky, or misshapen, mass of stone- 
mile after mile— merely to have the pleasure of dressing it into 
shape at the end of their laborious journey. Minor details 
may have been carried out at Stonehenge ; but, probably, the 
stones were squared before they reached Salisbury Plain, and 
chippings, for the most part, have to be sought elsewhere. 

Writers, usually, cite the removal of large masses of stone 
by people, who like the Assyrians and Egyptians, had attained 
to a comparatively high standard of civilization. It may be 
instructive, therefore, to seek for the example of a "stone- 
moving" people nearer the cuUure-level of the probable 
builders of Stonehenge. Such a people appear to have existed 
in Central America. Stephens visited some quarries from 
whence the material, used for the altars and large stone idols 
at Copan, was obtained. He expresses himself as being 
astonished at what had been accomplished. " How the large 
masses were transported," he writes, " over the irregular and 
broken surface we had crossed, and particularly how one of 
them was set up on the top of a mountain, two thousand feet 
high, it was impossible to conjecture. In many places were 
blocks which had been quarried out and rejected from some 
defect ; and, at one spot, midway in a ravine leading toward 
the river, was a gigantic block, much larger than any we saw m 



Memlithic Structures in Ce?itral America. loi 



''0) 



the city, which was probably on its way thither to be carved 
and set up as an ornament, when the labours of the workmen 
were arrested. Like the unfinished blocks in the quarries at 
Assouan and on the Pentelican Mountain, it remains as a 
memorial of baffled human plans. 

The unfortunate taste to hand down his name to posterity, 
so common to tourists, seized upon Stephens, for, he says : — 
" On the top of the range was a quarried block. With the chay 
stone found among the ruins, and supposed to be the in- 
strument of sculpture, we wrote our names upon ity The 
pleasure to be derived from this act was not entirely unalloyed, 
for he adds, we can almost fancy with a sigh of regret : — 
" They stand alone, and few will ever see them." We could 
wish that few would follow his example, in thus defacing a 
page in the unwritten story of the past— whether seen or 
unseen. 

The more advanced people of America, prior to the arrival 
of Europeans, were living in the Bronze Age, they had not 
discovered the use of iron as a metal. But these blocks of 
stone at Copan, most of them covered with elaborate sculp- 
ture, are supposed by Stephens to have been wrought with 
stone tools ; he says, " the stone of which all these altars and 
statues are made is a soft grit-stone from the quarries before 
referred to. At the quarries, we observed many blocks with 
hard flint-stones distributed through them, which had been 
rejected by the workmen after they were quarried out. The 
back of this monument^ had contained two. Between the 
second and third tablets the flint has been picked out, and the 
sculpture is blurred ; the other, in the last row but one from 
the bottom, remains untouched. An inference from this is, 
that the sculptor had no instruments with which he could cut 
so hard a stone, and, consequently, that iron was unknown. 
We had, of course, directed our searches and inquiries to this 
point, but did not find any pieces of iron or other metal, nor 
could we hear of any having ever been found there. Don 
Miguel had a collection of chay or flint stones, cut in the shape 
of arrow-heads, which he thought, and Don Miguel was no 
fool, were the instruments employed. They were sufficiently 
hard to scratch into the stone. Perhaps, by men accustomed 
to the use of them, the whole of these deep relief ornaments 
might have been scratched, but the chay stones themselves 

^ Figured to^face p, 153, vol. i. 



I02 The Avenues and Cursus, at Sfonehejige. 

looked as if they had been cut by metal. "^ With regard to 
Stephens' last remark, it is possible that the smoothness of the 
surface of these chay tools was nothing more than what is 
usually produced by the process of flaking ; and it would seem 
that the elaborately sculptured monoliths and altars of Copan 
were erected by a purely stone-using people. If so, it goes 
far to set at rest the impossibility of Stonehenge having been 
erected during the Stone Age,^ although my own impres- 
sion (from other circumstances) is that the erection of Stone- 
henge may be referred to an early period in the Bronze Age, 
perhaps to a time when the use of stone overlapped that of 
bronze. 

THE AVENUES AND CURSUS. 

Neither Webb nor Aubrey appear to have noticed the 
Avenues or Cursus, and Stukeley is entitled to the credit of 
having discovered both f they are shown in the plan of the 
route. The cursus situated about half-a-mile north of Stone- 
henge, is in length i mile, 5 furlongs, and 176 yards; its 
breadth is no yards. At the distance of 55 yards from the 
eastern end the course is rounded off, as if the horses made a 
turn at this spot. At the distance of 638 yards from this end, 
are two entrances into the area of the cursus, opposite to each 
other; and 825 yards further on the bank has been broken 
down by the continual passing of waggons ; to this spot Dr. 
Stukeley supposes the northern branch of the avenue from 
Stonehenge pointed. The avenue extends from Stonehenge, 
rather more than 1700 feet in a straight line, towards the 
north-east. The earth removed from the ditches is thrown 
inward. "The two ditches continue," says Stukeley, ''per- 
fectly parallel to the bottom (of the valley), 40 cubits asunder. 
. . . At the bottom of the valley, it divides into two 
branches. The eastern branch goes a long way hence, directly 
east, pointing to an ancient ford of the river Avon. The 
western branch from its termination at the bottom of the hill, 
1000 cubits from the work at Stonehenge, goes off with a 
similar sweep at first, but then it does not throw itself into a 

^ Stephens, " Incidents of Travel in Cent. Anier., &c.," Murray, 1842, 
vol. i., pp. 153, 154. 

2 The "soft grit-stone" at Copan is probably less difficult to work with 
stone tools than the stones at Stonehenge. 

2 See Mr. Long's account, pp. 89 — 91. 



Who erected Stonehejige ? 1 03 

strait line immediately, as the former, but continues curving 
along the bottom of the hill, till it meets, what I call, the 
cursus." ■ 

WHO ERECTED STONEHENGE? 

It has been suggested that Stonehenge was erected by the 
Belgae, who in the time of Julius Caesar, are known to have 
occupied that part of Britain in which Stonehenge is situated. 

They appear to have gradually expelled the British tribes 
who preceded them, and constructed successive lines of 
defence — Combe Bank, Bokerly Ditch, and Wansdike; pos- 
sibly, however, these earthworks were not intended so much 
for purposes of defence, as to serve for boundary lines ; of 
these Wansdike formed (probably) the last of the Belgic 
boundaries. It is a magnificent earthwork, and stretched 
from the woodlands of Berkshire to the British Channel. 

"The builders of Stonehenge," writes Dr. Thurnam, "we 
believe to have been the Belgae, or possibly a confederacy of 
the whole of those Belgic tribes, by whom, at a no very long 
time before our era, a great part of South Britain was con- 
quered and settled."^ 

Our President, Sir John Lubbock, has expressed the 
opinion that Stonehenge " may be regarded as a monument 
of the Bronze Age, apparently not all erected at one time, 
the inner circle^ of small, unwrought blue stones, being, pro- 
bably, older than the rest ;" and that it was " used as a 
Temple."^ 

Now that we have seen Stonehenge, we need not fear the 
unlucky fate that befell "a wander witt of Wiltshire," who 
" rambling to Rome to gaze at antiquities, and there skrewing 
himself into the company of Antiquaries, they entreated him 
to illustrate unto them, that famous monument in his country, 
called Stallage. His answer was that he had never seen, 
scarce ever heard of it. Whereupon they kicked him out of 
doors, and bad him goe home, and see Stonage ; and I wish," 
adds the writer, "all such ^sopicall cocks, as slight these 
admired stones, and other our domestick monuments, and 
scrape for barley-cornes of vanity out of forreigne dunghills 
might be handled, or rather footed, as he was."^ I will not go 

* " Archaeologia, vol. xliii., p. 309. 
- Inner circle and inner horseshoe. ^ " Pre-Historic Times," p. 116. 
^ "A Fool's Bolt soon shot at Stonage," written about 1660, and 
published anonymously in " Langtoft's Chronicle." 



I04 Salisbury Plain. 

so far as to recommend this as the best method for instilling a 
love of local antiquities into the minds of those who have 
hitherto stood aloof j but such treatment is richly merited by 
those who, from time to time, visit Stonehenge, and chip off 
pieces of the stones, or otherwise deface and injure them. 

Again the carriages are on the move, this time with little 
noise, for we are rolling along over the green carpet of Salis- 
bury Plain. 

SALISBURY PLAIN. 

Year after year, the turf disappears before the plough, but 
rather less than a century ago no signs of tillage were to be 
seen around Stonehenge. " The plain on which Stonehenge 
stands," writes the Rev. William Gilpin, " is in the same style 
of greatness as the temple that adorns it. It extends many 
miles in all directions, in some not less than fifty. An eye 
unversed in these objects is filled with astonishment in viewing 
waste after waste rising out of each new horizon. 

' Such appears the spacious plain 
Of Sarum, spread like Ocean's boundless round, 
Where solitary Stonehenge, grey with moss, 
Ruin of ages, nods.' 

The ground is spread, indeed, as the poet observes, like the 
ocean; but it is like the ocean after a storm, it is continually 
heaving in large swells. Through all this vast district, scarce 
a cottage or even a bush appears. If you approach within 
two or three miles of the edge of the plain, you see, like the 
mariner within soundings, land at a distance, houses, trees, 
villages; but all around is waste. Regions like this, which 
have come down to us rude and untouched from the beginning 
of time, fill the mind with grand conceptions, far beyond the 
efforts of art and cultivation. Impressed by such views of 
nature, our ancestors worshipped the god of nature, in these 
boundless scenes, which gave them the highest conceptions of 

eternity All the plain, at least that part of it near 

Stonehenge, is one vast cemetery. Everywhere, as we passed, 
we saw tumuli or barrows, as they are called, rising on each 
hand. These little mounds of earth are more curiously and 
elegantly shaped than any of the kind I remember elsewhere 
to have seen. They commonly rise in the form of bells, and 
- each of them hath a neat trench fashioned round its base ; 
though in their forms, and in the ornamental circles at their 



W/iaf are the Barrows ? 105 

bases, some appear to be of more distinguished workmanship. 
They are of various sizes, sometimes of thirty, sometimes of 
forty, or fifty yards in diameter. From many places we counted 
above an hundred of them at once ; sometimes as if huddled 
together without any design ; in other places rising in a kind 
of order. By the rays of a setting sun, the distant barrows 
are most conspicuously seen. Every little summit being tipped 
with a splendid light (while the plain is in shadow) is at that 
time easily distinguished. Most of them are placed on the 
more elevated parts of the plain, and generally in sight of the 
great temple. That they are mansions of the dead is un- 
doubted ; many of them having been opened, and found to 
cover the bones both of men and beasts ; the latter of which 
were probably sacrificed at the funeral."^ 

The popular idea still agrees with that expressed long ago 
by Camden, that these " burrowes or barrowes" were probably 
thrown up in memory of soldiers slain thereabouts," and for 
the same reason, because " bones are found in them." Aubrey 
and Stukeley both held a different opinion. " At Stonehenge," 
says Aubrey, "one may count, round about it fourty-five 
Barrowes. I am not of the opinion, that all these were made 
for burying the dead that were slain herabout in Battels ; it 
would require a great deale of time and leisure to collect so 
many thousand loades of earth : and the soldiers have some- 
thing els to doe flagrante bello : to pursue their victorie, or 
preserve themselves pursued : the cadavera remained a feast 
for the Kites and Foxes. So that I presume they were the 
Mausolea or Burying places for the Great Persons and Rulers 
of those times." " They (the barrows) are assuredly, the 
single sepulchres of kings and great personages buried during 
a considerable space of time, and that in peace. There are 
many groups of them together, and as family burial places ; the 
variety of them, seems to indicate some note of difference in 
the persons there interred, well known in those ages." The 
subsequent examination of barrows in Wiltshire and elsewhere, 
goes to prove the soundness of these opinions. "To the 
sanctity attaching to Stonehenge," writes Mr. Long, " the 
numerous and important ' monumental hillocks' on the adjoin- 
ing plain bear testimony, but no one who looked carefully at 

^ "Observations on the Western Parts of England, relative especially to 
Picturesque Beauty," 1798; quoted by Mr. Long, "Wilts. Mag.," vol. 
xvi., pp. 138, 139. 



io6 Wiltshire Barrows. 

them, could, for a moment, entertain the idea that these were 
the graves of slaughtered heroes, whom survivors had ' buried 
darkly at the dead of night.' They carry with them unmis- 
takeable indications of having been leisurely and carefully 
made by a people who were living in peace and safety upon 
and around the neighbouring down.''^ It is, however, to the 
late Dr. Thurnam that we are chiefly indebted for the classifi- 
cation of our Wiltshire barrows, and of the objects found in 
them. His two valuable communications to the Society of 
Antiquaries of London, on this subject, are published,^^but, as 
they may not have been read by all who have joined this 
Stonehenge Excursion, I have given an outline of the informa- 
tion contained in them. 

WILTSHIRE BARROWS. 

With scarcely an exception, the barrows of our Downs are all 
to be regarded as pre-Roman, and may therefore be spoken of 
in a general way as ancient British.^ When tested however, 
by their outward form and by their contents, they are divisible 
into two great classes ; viz., Long barrows and Round barrows, 
of which the first-named are the earliest in time. 

In no county in England are long barrows so numerous as 
in Wiltshire. Round barrows are commonly found to occur in 
groups or clusters, but long barrows stand apart and are 
isolated. It is a very rare circumstance to find two long 
barrows within sight, or even within a mile's distance, of each 
other ; and generally they are at least two or three miles apart. 
As a rule, long barrows occupy the highest points on the down. 

Several of the clusters of round barrows near Stonehenge 
are grouped around a single long barrow. But this proximity 
is no proof that these two classes of barrows are of equal 
antiquity. The examination of the long barrows discloses an 
entirely different method of sepulture, and indicates a much 
earlier epoch than does that of the round barrows. As a rule, 
however, the long barrows stand apart from those of circular 
form. 

^ Wilts Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 142. 

2 " Archfeologia," vol. xlii,, pp. 161 — 244; vol. xliii. , pp. 285 — 552. 

^ " It is further to be remarked," writes Dr. Thurnam, "that the few 
Anglo-Saxon tumuli which have been found in Wiltshire yvexe in the out- 
lying districts and valleys, and not one of them on the barrows-covered hills 
and plains around Avebury and Stonehenge, the sacred places of an elder 
race." — " Archaeologia," vol. xliii., p. 287. 



LONG BARROWS. 

The long barrows are for the most part immense mounds, 
varying in size, from one or two hundred to three and even 
nearly four hundred feet in length, from thirty to fifty feet in 
breadth or upwards, and from three to ten or even twelve feet 
in elevation. Along each side of the tumulus is a somewhat 
deep and wide trench or ditch, see Fig. 52, from which 




Fig. 52, A Long Bakeow (after Sir E. C. Hoare,)i 

trenches a great part, or sometimes even the whole, of the 
material of the mound was dug, but which it is very remarkable 
are not continued round the ends of the barrow. The presence 
of this feature affords an important means of distinguishing the 
truly ancient British long barrow from certain elongate grave- 
mounds of later epochs with which, judging only from a certain 
resemblance in their outward form, they may be confounded. ^ 
In by far the greater proportion of long barrows, the mound is 
placed east and west or nearly so, with the east end somewhat 

1 " Archseologia, " vol. xlii., part i, p. 172, Fig. i. 
- Oval barrows usually cover two or three interments by cremation, one 
near each end, and frequently a third near the middle. The accompanying 
objects do not differ from those to be found in round barrows, and this is 
the case when the interments in an oval barrow have taken place by simple 
inhumation. They are to be attributed to the a^e of burning, which in 
South-west Britain was essentially an age of bronze. Their erection is to be 
assigned to the " same people and epoch as the generality of the round 
barrows, and especially those of bowl form. They are, in fact, composite 
tumili, formed of two or three — generally three — circular grave-mounds, 
the whole surrounded by a slight ditch. The plan of their formation may 
be better comprehended by the aid of the diagrams," Figs, 53 and 54, 
from which it will be seen how two or three circles marked out side by side 
on the turf might, by the over-lapping of their edges and other manipula- 
tion, have been made to coalesce in a single tumulus of oval form. That 
this is no improbable view is the more evident from the consideration of the 
twin and triple composite barrows of bell-form, which are occasionally met 
with." In Figs. 53 and 54, " the dots in centre of the circles will repre- 
sent so many places of primary sepulture." — Thurnam, " Archseologia," 
vol. xliii., pp. 296 — 298. 



io8 Relative age of Long Ban'ows and Belgic Dykes, 

higher and broader than the other. Under this more promi- 
nent and elevated extremity, the sepulchral deposit is usually 




Fig. 53. Fig. 54. 

Diagrams illustrative of the formation of Oval Barrows, i 

found, at or near the natural level of the ground : but, although 
this is the general rule, a certain proportion depart decidedly 
from such a system of orientation, being placed pretty nearly 
north and south, and this is an arrangement found, by Dr. 
Thurnam, to obtain in about one out of six of our Wiltshire 
long barrows. 

The position of some of the long barrows in relation to the 
very ancient earthworks known as Belgic dykes is indicative of 
the higher antiquity of the barrows. The earthwork (bank and 
ditch) which stretches across Salisbury Plain from north-east to 
south-west, and is laid down on the Ordnance maps as " Old 
Ditch" is especially prominent near Tilshead, about six miles 
to the north-west of our route, where is one of the largest of 
our long barrows, measuring 380 feet in length and 1 1 feet in 
height. On reaching the east end of this mound the ditch 
" makes a decided curve in order to avoid the tumulus," 
which as Sir R. C. Hoare justly observes, " is a certain proof 
of the superior date of the barrow." 

Another example is on the southern border of Wiltshire near 
the villages of Martin and Tippet, where the course of a branch 
of Bokerly Ditch has been diverted, " in order to avoid a long 
barrow ;" which, as Sir Richard again says, " proves the high 
antiquity of the sepulchral mound." 

The upper strata of the long barrows of Wiltshire consist 
chiefly of chalk rubble and flint nodules ; but these grave- 
mounds diff'er from the circular barrows around them, in having 
at the base, in almost all cases, a stratum of black or greyish 



1 u 



Archgeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 228, Figs. 4 and 5. 



■^ 



Remains of Funeral Feasts. — Mode of Burial. 109 

coloured, often unctuous, earth, in which the skeletons are 
found ; this is probably due to the decay of the turf pared off 
from the site of the barrow, and from the space occupied by 
the lateral ditches on each side of it, and which may have been 
heaped over the interment, before the tumulus was raised. 

Remains of Fimeral Feasts. — Not far from the human re- 
mains, though at a somewhat higher level, but still for the most 
part in the stratum of black or grey earth, are often found the 
bones of oxen, those of the skull and feet being the portions 
of the skeleton most generally met with. These belong to a 
small short-horned species, the Bos longif'ons. In the long 
barrow of Tilshead Lodge (No. 22), Dr. Thurnam found the 
skulls of two individuals of this species, one of which had six 
or seven cervical vertebrae i7i situ and entire, excepting the 
atlas and dentata, which were each ill two pieces, cleanly cleft 
as if in the slaughter of the animal. In the same barrow 
were the metatarsus and phalanges, no doubt of the same ox, 
all in situ. In another barrow (No. 26) were part of a skull, 
and a great number of metacarpi and metatarsi, with every 
phalangal bone of the digits in place, and in several instances 
the carpal, tarsal, and sesamoid bones likewise. Altogether, the 
appearances justify the conclusion that oxen were slaughtered 
at the time of the obsequies for the supply of the funeral 
feast, and that the heads and feet, not being used for food, 
were thrown on the yet incomplete barrow, as offerings, per- 
haps to the manes or to other deities. The appearances of 
the foot-bones, as well as those of the neck, clearly prove that 
the entire members, head and feet, had been cut off whilst 
held together by the tendons, ligaments, hoofs, and probably 
the skin. Antlers and bones of the red deer, as well as tusks 
and bones of the wild boar, trophies probably of the chase^ 
are also found in the long barrows. 

Mode of Btirial. — The human remains belonging to the 
primary interments in the long barrows may be classed under 
two heads, according as they are the skeletons of one or at 
the most two bodies distinctly and separately interred, or as 
they are those of many bodies promiscuously piled together. 
As a rule, the former belong to the mounds of the less, the 
latter to those of the greater, elevation. In that of Winter- 
bourne Stoke (No. 16) the single skeleton lay in the contracted 
posture on the right side. In that near Tilshead Lodge (No. 
22) there were two skeletons lying not more than a foot apart. 



no Evideftce as to Huviaii Sacrifices. 

The space occupied by each was so very small, that either very 
unusual means had been resorted to for doubling up the body, 
or the flesh had been suffered to decay before burial. The 
bones, however, were observed to be in situ, joint to joint, so 
that the ligaments at least had not separated when the bodies 
were deposited in their final resting place. Both skeletons lay 
with the head to the north, and on the right side. In the 
Figheldean long barrow (No. 23) the bones of a single skeleton 
formed a small pile, very little to the east of the centre of the 
mound, and in this instance they appeared to have been dis- 
articulated by the decay of the ligaments before their final 
interment ; the bones in many instances not retaining their 
proper relative position, the head of one tibia being in juxta- 
position with the malleolus of the other, and vice versa. Much 
more usually, however, the human remains in the long barrows 
comprise numerous skeletons, which are " strangely huddled," 
or " thrown promiscuously together. " The bones found by 
Dr. Thurnam in Tilshead East long barrow (No. 17) com- 
prised the remains of eight skeletons singularly cemented 
together, within a space of less than four feet in diameter, and 
about a foot and a half in depth. So much were they mingled 
and so closely packed, that it is scarcely possible to regard this 
as the oris^inal place of burial \ and it is almost certain they had 
experienced a prior interment, and had been removed to the 
spot, where they were found, after the decay of the soft parts 
and the separation of the bones. In the long barrow of Norton 
Bavant (No. 28) the pile of bones consisted of the remains of 
at least eighteen skeletons, which were comprised within an 
area of about 8 by 3 feet, and about 18 inches in depth. The 
idea conveyed by the exploration of this deposit is that of a 
prior interment. There was great commingling of the osseous 
remains ; and it was noticed that many of the bones of the 
limbs were absent, judging as to their proper number from that 
of the skulls. 

Evidence as to Human Sacrifices. — In a large proportion of 
the long barrows opened by Dr. Thurnam, many of the skulls 
exhumed had been cleft, apparently by some blunt weapon, 
such as a club or stone axe. Among the heaps of human re- 
mains Dr. Thurnam sometimes found one skull unmutilated, 
whilst all the others show marks of cleavage. From a careful 
examination of the fractures, it seemed evident to Dr. Thurnam 
that the violence was inflicted before burial, and in all 



Flint Implements in Long Barrows. — Pottery. 1 1 1 

probability during life. "Such injuries," he says, "might, no 
doubt, occasionally occur as an accident of war ; but it is 
scarcely possible they should have thus occurred with a 
frequency so great as the careful examination of these remains 
discloses. I hence conclude that the skeletons with cleft 
skulls are those of human victims immolated on the occasion 
of the burial of a chief. Everywhere such human sacrifices, 
among barbarous and half-civilised peoples, have been, and 
still are, common." 

That traces of a kind of suttee^ may be looked for in the 
earher grave-mounds of the ancient Britons is probable, not 
merely from what Caesar tells us of the immolation of slaves 
and dependants, but still more so from his statement that, if 
the circumstances of the death of a chief were suspicious, the 
wives were put to severe torture and killed by fire.^ 

In rare instances, in Wiltshire long barrows, cremation of an 
imperfect sort had been practised. 

Associated Majiufactured Objects. Flint Ii7iplements. — Very 
few objects of any kind have been found associated with inter- 
ments in long barrows. The delicate and beautifully-chipped 
leaf-shaped flint arrow-head shown in Fig. 55, was obtained 
from the long barrow on Fyfield Hill, called the "Giant's 
Grave ;" it was found close to one of the skulls. " As similar 
leaf-shaped flint arrow-heads, chipped to a great tenuity," says 
Dr. Thurnam, " have been found in two chambered long bar- 
rows, one in Wiltshire (Walker Hill) and one in Gloucestershire 
(Rodmarton), see Fig. 56, and as no barbed flint arrow-heads 
have so been found, I have ventured to designate this more 
primitive, though very delicate, form, the long-barrow type offiint 
arrow-head^ it being the only description as yet found in them." 

Pottery. — Very little pottery has been recovered from the 
long barrows, and that chiefly in a fragmentary state. But, 
"in 1866, in removing the pile of skeletons from the long 
barrow of Norton Bavant (No. 28)," says Dr. Thurnam, 
"imbedded among the human skeletons we discovered the 
greater part of a thin curious vase of a wide-mouthed semi- 
globular form, and which was capable of being partially 
restored, see Fig. 57. There are two ear-shaped handles pro- 

^ A wife who desired to be burned with her deceased husband was re- 
garded as a sati or "good woman," and this word has passed into English 
as suttee. 

2 " Bell. Gall.," vi. 19. 



112 



Flint Tmpleme7its, 6^^., in Long Barrows. 





Fig. 55. Leaf-shaped Flint Arrow- Fig. 56. Leae-shaped Flint 

HEAD, FOUND IN LONG BARROW, AT ArROW-HEAD, FOUND IN ChAM- 

Fyfield, Wilts. 1 berin Long Barrow, at Eod- 

MARTON, Gloucestershire. 2 




Fig. 57. Fictile Vessel, with Primary Interment, Norton 
Bay ANT Long Barrow, Wilts. 3 



^ " Archseologia," vol. xlii., part i, p. 194, Fig. 3. 
2 Ibid, p. 230, Fig. 23. 3 ibi^^ p^ ig^^ Fig 4_ 



Chaffibered Long Barrows. 113 

jecting from below the rim, and the vessel when complete 
would have held perhaps two pints." In the specimens of 
pottery obtained from long barrows that came under the notice 
of Dr. Thurnam, " there is not the slightest trace of orna- 
mentation, either by pressure of cords or thongs, or by any 
other process ; in this respect, the contrast being great with 
most of the pottery from the round barrows." 

Secondary Interments. — The secondary interments not un- 
frequently met with in the upper strata, or near the summits 
of long barrows, are of great importance in enabling us to 
form an estimate of the probable relative date of these grave- 
mounds. The extended position of the skeleton and the 
character of the associated iron weapons, prove many of these 
secondary interments to belong to the Anglo-Saxon period. 
Some of the secondary interments, however, belong to the 
ancient British Bronze Age ; the skulls of the individuals so 
interred are of the round type (brachycephalic), the same type 
as those found in the circular barrows, whereas the skulls found 
in the long barrows are remarkably long and narrow and are 
to be classed as dolicJiocephalic. In Europe, at the present day, 
there is no people with skulls so long and so narrow ; and we 
have to search for cranial proportions similar to those of the 
old long barrow folk far away in Africa, India, Australia, or the 
Melanesian Islands. 

" The contrast in form," says Dr. Thurnam, " between the 
long skulls from the long barrows and the short or round 
skulls, which, to say the least, prevail in our Wiltshire circular 
barrows, is most interesting and remarkable, and suggests an 
essential distinction of race in the peoples by whom the two 
forms 06 tumuli were respectively constructed." 

CHAMBERED LONG BARROWS. 

Eleven Wiltshire long barrows differ from those already 
described in containing a chamber formed of slabs of stone, 
in which the interment has taken place. The absence of 
chambered long barrows in South Wiltshire and Dorsetshire 
appears to be due to the fact, that in those chalk regions 
there is an absence of stone suitable for the construction of 
chambers. In North Wiltshire the case is different, and sarsen 
stones of large dimensions, and in great numbers, are found iri 
the hollows of the higher chalk downs. 

Of the chambered barrows of Wiltshire, which, inclusive of 

I 



114 Chambered Long Barrows, 

Wayland's smithy, just over the border, are twelve in number, 
nine, all in the chalk district, have, as was to have been ex- 
pected, the chambers formed of sarsen stones. The three other 
chambered barrows of our county lie on the oolite, and the 
chambers are constructed of slabs of stone derived from that 
formation, such as crop out upon, or near to, the surface, and 
could therefore be easily quarried. 

Generally speaking, the chambered long barrows are not 
of such large dimensions as those without chambers ; varying 
mostly from about 120 to 200 feet in length, and from 30 to 
60 feet in breadth. The lateral ditches, which are so marked 
a feature in the unchambered long barrows, are for the most 
part but slightly developed in those which are chambered. 

In the oolitic regions, where suitable stone is abundant, 
nearly all the chambered barrows are found to have been sur- 
rounded with a dwarf dry stone wall laid in horizontal courses, 
neatly faced on the outside, and carried up to a height of two, 
three, or four feet. In this way was produced a supporting 
wall which defined the limits of the mound, enabled entrances 
to be made in it, and converted it from a mere hillock into a 
monumental structure. Such supporting walls were used, from 
an early period, in the construction of the earthen tumuli of 
the ancient Greeks. Thus of that of Patroclus and Achilles, 
in the Iliad, it is said : — 

" They marked the boundary of the tomb with stones, 
Then filled the enclosure hastily with earth. "^ 

So also among the less civilized people of Northern Europe, 
for we learn from Beowulf that the tumulus of the hero of the 
poem was " surrounded with a wall, in the most honourable 
manner that wise men could devise it."^ 

As the lateral walls of the chambered long barrows approach 
the broad and high end of the tumulus, they turn inwards by a 
bold but gradual curve ; and so finally abut on the two large 
standing stones, which in the best marked examples of these 
chambers form the door jambs to the entrance, see Fig. 58. 

Mliad, xxiii. 255. Mr. F. A. Paley ("On Homeric Tumuh," in 
"Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc," xi. 2) gives reasons for thinking that the 
tumulus of Patroclus and Achilles, here described, was not circular, but 
like our chambered long barrows, and the " ship barrows" of Scandinavia, 
of elongate form. See also my " Flint Chips," 385, &c. 

' Beowulf, c. xliv. 



Chambered Lo?i9 Barrows. 



115 



"Si^i^r 




Fig. 58. Entrance to Chambers in Long Barrow at Ulet 

Gloucestershire,^ ' 

The gracefully rounded double-convex curve of the walling m 
this situation has not inaptly been compared to " the top of 
the figure of the ace of hearts in a pack of cards." 

On the Chalk Downs of North Wiltshire, where the sarsen 
blocks, of which the chambers are formed, are common on the 
surface, the base of the barrow has in several instances been 
surrounded by a series of such stones placed erect at regular 
intervals. 

The chambered long barrows present three principal types, 
as regards their internal construction :— 

. a Chambers opening into a Central Gallery. 

b Chambers opening externally. 

c Cists in place of Chambers. 
Of the finest examples of the first class {a), the entrance to 
the avenue is, or was, by a well-built doorway, formed of two 
standing stones and a third stone laid transversely upon them, 
see Fig. 58, which three stones {trilitho7i) are, for the most part, 
of larger and more massive proportions than any of the others 
entering into the composition of the chambers. This door- 
way IS found several feet within the skirt or general base-line 
of the tumulus, and fills up the bottom of the doubly-recurved, 
heart-shaped dry-walling already described. The entrance. 



I <( 



Archaeologia," vol. xlii., part i, p. 213, Fig. 9. 

I 2 



1 16 Monoliths and Trilithons. in Chambered Long Barroivs. 

varying from two and a half to four feet in height was closed 
bv a large stone on the outside, which could be ro led away as 
required, and was itself covered up with the rubble-stone and 
earth of which the barrow was formed. The roofing of the 
central gallery, as well as of the chamber or chambers, was 
formed of large blocks of stone laid across, and restmg upon, 
the side walls. Sometimes, however, the prmciple ot the 
horizontal arch was resorted to. 

In the second class of the chambered barrows of this part 
of England (b) there is no central gallery, but side-chambers, 
which open outwards, near the base of the barrow, though at 
some distance within the inclosing wall. These side-chambers 
are generally in pairs, the one nearly opposite the other not 
far from the broad end, and near what may be called the 
shoulders of the barrow. Access to the internal chambers 
now under consideration was given by short and narrow 
passages formed of standing and horizontal stones ; or more 
frequently by a mere continuation of the inclosing wall of the 
mound These chambers or vaults are generally of a nearly 
square form. They are closed in front by two upright stones, 
naturally hollowed in the middle, so as, when placed side by 
side, to leave a sort of port-hole, through which the tomb 
might be entered in the creeping posture, see Fig. 59- i.^e 
stones forming the opening were covered on the outside with 
large stones and these again by stone rubble, all of which had 
to be removed before the chamber could be re-entered, from 
time to time, when fresh interments took place. 

The third type {c) q.2.\\ only be classed as chambered from 
their close relationship, and clearly contemporary origin, to 
those of groups a and h. Instead of chambers, properly so 
termed, they contain graves built up with stone slabs 

Monoliths or Triliths at the Broad End of Chambered 
Barrows.-ln two of the classes (b and c) of chambered 
barrows, the inclosing wall, as in class ^, curves inwards at the 
broad end of the tumulus, in a kind of ace-of-hearts form. But 
at the spot where the curve ends, in place of an entrance are 
to be found large stones placed in various fashions. Sometimes 
a monohth, sometimes two standing stones with a third resting 
against, or it may be wedged in between them. In the fine 
chambered tumulus at Ablington (No. 1 8) there is a doub e or 
concentric range of dry walling inclosing the base, which, a the 
broad end, makes the usual double curve inwards. Exactly at 



Monoliths upon Chamiered Long Barrows. 



117 




Fig. 59. Tolmen Entrance to Chamber on the North Side of 
Long Barrow at E'odmarton, Gloucestershire.^ 

the point where these curves meet there is a large upright 
oval stone, six feet high and five wide, the bottom of which 
rests in the (natural) perforation of a second block,^ by means 
of this support the monolith is steadied and kept in place, 
see Fig. 60. It would be idle to suppose that no symbolical 




Fig. 60. Monolith, heart-shaped curves op double walling, and 

PYRAMIDAL PILING IN LONG BARROW, AT AbLINGTON, GLOUCESTER- 
SHIRE. ^ 



^ " Archreologia, ", vol. xlii., part i, p. 217, Fig. 12. 
^ Such naturally perforated stones are often to be found in the Cotteswolds. 



3 <( 



Archieologia," vol. xlii., part i, p. 219, Fig. 13. 



1 1 8 The Worship of Sto7ies. 

meaning was intended to be conveyed by this associated posi- 
tion of the monolith and tolmen. In some instances, a mono- 
lith was placed on the exterior of the mound, thus on the broad 
end of the long barrow at Gatcombe, Gloucestershire, is a 
massive monolith, called " Tingle Stone," and other examples 
are known. Monoliths, answering to these, were placed upon 
ancient tumuli in the Troad.^ Some writers have supposed 
that these monoliths were intended only to render the tumulus 
a more conspicuous object, but this opinion does not explain 
the presence of monoliths and trilithons within the tumulus, 
where they would be completely hidden from the eye. On the 
other hand, if we attribute a symbolical and superstitious 
meaning to the monoliths present upon, and in, tumuli — as 
well as at Stonehenge, then we are in a position to understand 
why such stones were objects of worship. Long after the 
introduction of Christianity, the common people still regarded 
as sacred certain fountains, trees, and stones, and continued to 
visit them on certain days, and under particular circumstances. 
Stones are mentioned in the decrees of various councils of 
Anglo-Saxon times, so late even as those of Edgar and Cnut, 
in whose laws such practices are denounced. " Heathenism," 
say the laws of Cnut, " is that men worship idols, and the sun 
or the moon, or rivers, fountains, or stones of any kind." St. 
Eligius (St. Eloy) in preaching to the Franks, early in the 
seventh century, said, "Let no Christian presume to carry 
lights or oblations to temples, or to stones, or to fountains, or 
to trees, or to cross roads." Some, at least, of the stones 
referred to, were, doubtless, the monoliths, triliths, stone 

^ The tumuli in the Troad, like our Wiltshire long barrows, are placed 
on commanding positions, and with the design of making the barrow a land- 
mark. This idea is shown in Hector's challenge (Iliad, vii., 84 — 90) to 
some one of the Greeks to meet him in single combat. If Hector should 
prove victorious he undertakes to give back the body of the deceased to the 
Greeks, so that they may make for him a tumulus on the shores of the 
Hellespont, and that some one may say in times long afterwards, as he 
sails on the sea, "Yonder is the mound of some man who died long ago, 
and who was slain by Hector when he was showing valour in the fight." 
But this design of making the barrow a landmark was further carried out 
by placing a stone pillar on it. This is. called (tttjAt/, and is often men- 
tioned. It was sometimes of large size, for we read (Iliad, xi., 370) that 
Paris, who was skilled in archery, takes his position behind the (tti^At; on 
the barrow of Ilus, and shoots at Diomede, wounding him in the foot. It 
was therefore of sufficient size to conceal the archer, and it is termed his 
\bxos, or place of ambuscade. See Paley, "On Homeric Tumuli "in 
"Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc," vol. xi., part 2. 



Tohnens, d^r. 119 

circles, and cromlechs of hoar antiquity, which had never 
ceased to attract devotees. They seem to be unequivocally 
indicated in a decree of a council held at Nantes, in Brittany 
— a country in which monuments of this sort are so common. 
By the 20th canon of this council, the " stones which are vene- 
rated in ruinous places and in the forests" are ordered to be 
dug up and thrown into such a place as to be concealed alto- 
gether from those who worshipped them. 

Returning to our own country, it may be remarked that such 
monoliths as the " Hoar Stone" at Duntesbourne Abbot's 
(Gloucestershire), and the "Tingle Stone" at Gatcombe, and 
such a trilith as the " Three Stones" at Littleton Drew, distin- 
guished, as they all are, by their position on conspicuous long 
barrows, are monuments which on many grounds must have 
been attractive to a superstitious and half-heathen people. 

In illustration of this last remark, I may here refer to an 
ancient standing-stone, or menhir, called " Long Stone," in the 
parish of Minchin Hampton, Gloucestershire. It is seven or 
eight feet in height, and stands on a slight elevation, the 
remains. Dr. Thurnam thinks, of one of the chambered long 
barrows common in this part of Gloucestershire. Near the 
bottom of the stone is a natural perforation, through which, 
not many years since, children, brought from a considerable 
distance for the purpose, used to be passed for the cure and 
prevention of disease, and in particular for the relief of 
whooping-cough and measles. The stone in fact is a holed 
stone, a 7Jien-an-tol or tobnen, like those so called in Cornwall, 
which are resorted to by the peasantry for similar superstitious 
purposes.^ 

To my mind, the weight of evidence is very much in favour 
of the supposition that monoliths and trilithons were placed in, 
and upon tumuli — and constitute the temple at Stonehenge — 
because they possessed a symbolical meaning. 

^ Natural chasms in rocks or holes in the earth, of unknown origin, have 
been regarded as emblems of the celestial mother. There is much curious 
information on this subject in Godfrey Higgins' " Anacalypsis," where we 
are told that the early Christian preachers found the custom in Yorkshire, 
and tried to abolish it by cursing the sacred chasms, and naming them 
Cunni Diaboli, Lysons, in " Our British Ancestors," also gives some 
interesting observations on perforated stone entrances to chambered tumuli, 
&c., and quotes from a "Journey to the East," by Miss Ellwood, as 
follows :- "There is a sacred perforated stone at Malabar, through which 
penitents squeezed themselves in order to obtain a remission of their sins." 



I20 Round Barrows. 

Nearly every one has his theory about Stonehenge — this is 
my theory, and it seems to me to receive strong confirmation 
from the discoveries made in the chambered long barrows of 
this district. 

Mode of Burial in Chambered Long Barrows. — The method 
of burial in chambered tumuli is by the inhumation of the 
entire body, to the exclusion, almost absolute, of cremation. 

The bodies had in general been placed round the sides of 
the chamber, in a sitting or crouching posture, or otherwise 
reclining in the same contracted position on the floor. In the 
chamber at Rodmarton there were the remains of as many 
as thirteen bodies, and in others there were from three to 
fourteen. 

Cleft Skulls. — "In the year 1855," says Dr. Thurnam, "in 
one of the cists of the chambered barrow at Littleton Drew, I 
first observed portions of a skull of which the fractured edges 
were very sharp, suggesting the idea of having been cleft 
during life. Such cleft skulls have since been met with in the 
majority of the long barrows, both chambered and uncham- 
bered, which I have had the opportunity of examining." 
Leaf-shaped arrow-heads of flint, of delicate proportions and 
workmanship, of the type shown in Figs. 55 and 56, were met 
with in the undisturbed chamber at Rodmarton. It is curious 
that, in every instance, the points of these arrow heads were 
broken off when found. 

ROUND BARROWS. 

The great majority of the ancient sepulchral tumuli of Wilt- 
shire, as of the rest of England, belong to the class of Round 
Barrows. Most of these, there is reason to believe, belong to 
a period anterior to the firm establishment of the Roman 
power in Britain, about the last third of the first century of our 
era. It seems probable that it was not the usual practice of 
the Saxon-conquerors of Wessex to raise tumuli over their 
dead. In the true ancient British (or pre-Roman) tumuli of 
Wiltshire we have not to do with objects of iron, only with 
those of bronze and stone. Dr. Thurnam has divided round 
barrows into the following classes : — 

1. Bowl-shaped Barrows. 

2. Bell-shaped Barrows. 

3. Disc-shaped Barrows. 

I. The Bowl-shaped Barrow, see Fig. 61, is the simplest 



Boivl-shaped and Bell-shapcd Barrows. 



121 




Fig. 61. Bowl-shaped Barrow.' 

form of tumulus, and that most frequently met with. In 
height they vary from three to five feet. In diameter, the 
usual limits are between twenty and sixty feet, though in rare 
instances one hundred feet are reached and even exceeded. 
2. The Bell-shaped Barrow, see Fig. 62, is an elegant form 









Fig. 62. Bell-shaped Barrow. - 

of tumulus. It is surrounded by a circular ditch, from which 
part of the material of the mound has been dug, and within 
this there is a flat circular area on the same level as the 
surrounding turf In the centre of this platform stands the 
tumulus, which is usually of greater size than the bowl-shaped 
barrow, and varies from about five to fifteen feet in elevation. 
It is likewise steeper in proportion to its size, and is conse- 
quently more conical in outline. 

Many of the bell-shaped barrows have a diameter approach- 
ing to one hundred feet, which it may be remembered is that 
of the outer circle of stones at Stonehenge, but not a few con- 
siderably exceed this dimension. The bell-shaped barrow is 
by far more numerous and of more beautiful form in Wiltshire, 

* '* Archaeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 290, Fig, I. 
2 Ibid, p. 292, Fig. 2. 



12 2 Disc-shaped Barrows. 

and especially on the plain around Stonehenge, than in any 
other part of England. 

In both bowl-shaped and bell-shaped barrows (primary) in- 
terments by simple inhumation and by cremation have taken 
place, in the proportion of one of the former to three of the 

latter 

3. The disc-shaped Barrow, see Fig. 63, is so named, by 







Fm. 63. Disc-shaped Barrow. ^ 

Dr. Thurnam, from its resemblance to a circular flat dish 
surrounded by a deep rim. This form of tumulus consists of 
a circular area, on the same level as the surrounding turf, 
generally about one hundred feet in diameter, though some- 
times much less, and sometimes nearly double the size. The 
inclosed area is surrounded by a ditch with a bank on the 
outside, both very regularly formed. In the centre there is 
usually a small mound of slight elevation, not more than one 
foot in height ; sometimes there are two, or even three, such 
mounds, corresponding to so many sepulchral deposits. So 
insignificant are these central mounds that they are scarcely 
recognised as tumuli by the casual observer. The disc-shaped, 
like the bell-shaped, barrows are more common around Stone- 
henge than in any other part of Wiltshire, and in other parts 
of England are of very infrequent occurrence. We shall pass 
between two very good examples of the disc-shaped barrow 
about mid-way between Stonehenge and the " Druid's Head." 

In three instances, Stukeley shows that a Roman road 
passes across or encroaches upon a disc-shaped barrow, proving 
that the barrow was pre-Roman. Stukeley's accuracy m this 
statement may be still verified in the case of one, if not two, 
barrows at Woodyates, Dorset, and in that of another near 
Beckhampton, North Wilts ; but all trace of that on the line 
of the Roman road, near West Kennet, to which he refers, is 
now obliterated. The proof thus afforded of the prior date of 

^ " Archseologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 293, Fig. 3. 



Methods of l7iter7tient in Rouiid Ba7'rows. 123 

the tumuli Is the more important, as of all forms of British 
barrows the disc-shaped is probably the latest. 

Almost without exception the interments in disc-shaped 
barrows have taken place by cremation, the ashes being de- 
posited in small dished graves scooped out in the chalk rock. 
From the profusion of ornaments of amber, glass, and jet, as 
well as the small size of the bronze blades found in disc-shaped 
barrows, it is supposed that they were the burial-places of 
women. 

METHODS OF INTERMENT IN ROUND BARROWS. 

The Wiltshire barrows are constructed from the materials at 
hand — vegetable mould, chalk, and flints. The smaller bar- 
rows are generally formed of chalk, mould, and turf only. 
The larger ones have usually a stratum of chalk and one of 
mould at the base ; above this a greater or less pile of flint 
nodules, at times of sarsen stones, and then a stratum of chalk, 
often several feet in thickness. 

Generally speaking, the primary interments, those over 
which the barrows were originally raised, were placed in the 
centre, either on the natural level, or in graves excavated to 
a greater or less depth in the chalk below. The interments 
in Wiltshire round barrows have taken place both by cremation 
and by simple inhumation, in the proportion of about three of 
the former to one of the latter. In Dorsetshire, the interments 
by cremation are in still greater excess over those by inhuma- 
tion ; whilst in Yorkshire the proportions are nearly equal ; 
although the excess is on the other side. Possibly, burial by 
simple inhumation may have been the more ancient method, 
but many observations show that the two practices must often 
have been strictly contemporary. 

Interments by Simple Ifihumatio7i. — As a rule the body was 
placed on the natural level of the ground, or in a shallow 
grave, formed by peeling-off the turf and scooping out the 
surface of the chalk to the depth of a few inches, or at the 
most a foot. In some instances this grave, or " cist" is as 
deep as from six to ten feet, see Fig. 64. For the most part, 
the corpse was interred without the use of any kind of coffin. 
The body was often protected by a pile of flints, or as in the 
barrow at East Kennet, near Avebury, Wilts, by blocks of 
sarsen stone of considerable size, see Fig. 65. 

Contracted Posture of Skeleto7is. — In Wiltshire round bar- 



124 Interments by Inhumatioti. — Contracted Posture of Skeletons, 

rows of the ancient British period, without recorded exception, 
the skeleton has been found in a contracted posture, with the 
knees drawn up towards the trunk, the legs bent on the thighs, 
and the arms more or less drawn up towards the chest and 
face, as shown in Figs. 64 and d^. According to some writers, 



I 




Fig. 64. Section of Bell-shaped Barrow, at Winterslow, Wilts, with grave 

FOUR FEET DEEP, AND SECONDARY BURNT INTERMENTS IN UrNS INVERTED.' 




Fig. 65. Section of Bowl-shaped Barrow, with grave five feet deep, at Eas 

Kennet, near Avebury, Wilts. - 

this doubled-up posture is regarded as none other than that of 
the unborn infant, which was imposed upon the dead, when 
about to re-enter the bosom of the universal mother. In fact, 
it has been held to have been symbolical of a belief, not only 
in a life to come, but likewise in that of the resurrection of the 
body. ' : 

' " Archaeologia, " vol. xliii., part 2, p. 322, Fig. 10. 
2 Ibid, vol. xliii., part 2, p. 315, Fig. 6. 



Austral Aspect of Skeletons. 



125 



In other parts of England the extended posture of the 
skeleton is very rarely found. According to Dr. Thurnam, 
Canon Greenwell met with but a single instance out of the 
large number of barrows he has opened. In 1849, Mr. 
Ruddock opened a large barrow near Cawthorn Camps, N. R. 
Yorkshire, in which were two skeletons extended side by side 
at the bottom of a grave eleven feet deep, see Fig. 66. 




--*,,^'"^ -'—-'=«- "" ^■'iSJ^^^^^^^^^^^Q.^^^— -rC^ ^r^^'^'^^:zj^. iirr-^ciE ,L™, ^T""^ 'it*'*^^-* 




Fig. ^^. Section of Bowl-shaped Barrow near Cawthorn Camps, 
N. E. Yorkshire, with strata of burnt clay, grave eleven 

FEET DEEP, AND TWO SKELETONS EXTENDED. ^ 

Austral Aspect of Skeleto7is. — The ancient Britons of this 
district deposited the body, for the most part, in the meridian 
line, with the head to the north, and consequently with a 
south aspect. Some few instances are recorded in which the 
head was placed to the east, south-east, and south-west, but in 
no instance has the head been found directed to the south, 
and the aspect, therefore, boreal.^ The deviations from a 
southern aspect are more frequent towards the west than to- 
wards the east ; pointing probably to the greater number of 
deaths in winter, when the sunrise is to the south of east. 
Interments with the head to the west, or orientated as in most 
Christian burials are very rare. 

^ " Archseologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 319, Fig. 8. 
" The boreal aspect was the favorite one with the Pagan Anglo-Saxon?, 
in later times. 



126 



Interments by Cremation. 



Interments by Cremation. — When cremation was practised, 
the barrow was seldom raised upon the site of the funeral pile ; 
it is probable that the rite of cremation was at times per- 
formed at a distance, and the incinerated remains alone 
brought for interment to the place of burial, say some hallowed 
spot, like the neighbourhood of Stonehenge. When not col- 
lected into an urn, the burned bones (carefully separated from 
the wood ashes) seem to have been wrapped in skins or some 
kind of cloth, before they were deposited in the shallow grave 
or "cist." This "cist" was scooped out of the chalk, to a 
depth frequently of no more than a few inches, or, perhaps, 
one or two feet, see Fig. 67 ; though sometimes they were 
sunk to a greater depth. 




Fig. 67. Section op Disc-shaped Barrow at Winterbourne Stoke, 
Wilts, with Burnt Bones and Urn in Shallow Graves. ^ 

Urn Burial. — In Wiltshire, the Ancient Britons, more fre- 
quently collected the burnt bones into cinerary urns, in the 
proportion of three to one. In Dorsetshire, this proportion is 
almost exactly reversed. 

The urns were sometimes placed upright, at others in an 
inverted position, as shown in the secondary interments in Fig. 
64, the inverted is the more usual position ; urns of large size 
are almost invariably found inverted. The mouths of the urns 
are sometimes stopped with unburnt clay, firmly rammed in, or 
their contents are secured with closely packed flints. Some- 
times the mouth of the urn was covered by a large flat stone. 
Very commonly, the urn, when deposited, was protected by 
being inclosed in a heaped-up pile of flints. 

Objects Deposited with the Dead. — These consist of fictile 
vessels, implements and weapons of bone, stone, and bronze, 
personal ornaments, and the remains of animals. Our know- 
ledge of the pottery of the ancient Britons is founded on the 
numerous examples obtained from the barrows. It is all more 
or less rude, formed of clay mixed with minute pebbles, with 
fragments of broken flint, or sometimes with pounded chalk or 

^ " Archseologia, " vol. xliii., part 2, p. 325, Fig. 11. 



Cmerary Urns. 127 

shells. For the finer vessels, the clay has been tempered with 
grit or sharp sand. All seems to have been hand-made, there 
is no evidence of the use of the potter's wheel. The firing of 
most of this pottery has been very imperfect ; it was probably 
first partly dried by exposure to the air, and then baked in the 
ashes of a fire lighted over and around it.^ Some of the finer 
vessels may have been more carefully fired in a rude kiln of 
piled-up stones. 

The surface ornamentation of our British pottery has been 
variously produced. In some instances the pattern was pro- 
duced by the tip of the thumb of the potter — the impress of 
which and of the thumb-nail are plainly to be seen. Some- 
times the pattern is due to the impress of a twisted cord. 
Much of the ornamentation has been accomplished by means 
of some pointed instrument, probably of wood or bone. Again, 
in the finer vessels, the ornament is entirely of a stippled or 
punctured nature, made with a fine pin, or with many pins 
inserted comb-fashion in the edge of a stick, perhaps even by 
means of a comb-like instrument such as that used by savages 
in tattooing. The patterns are chiefly such as can be produced 
by combinations of straight lines. Circles and animal forms 
are not found in the decorations of ancient British pottery, 
but curved lines and what may be imitations of vegetable 
foliage are met with in rare cases. 

The true cinerary urn was probably made to contain ashes, 
and the " incense-cup" may likewise have been usually designed 
for funereal rites, both must be regarded as forms of sepulchral 
pottery. The decorated food-vessel and drinking-cup, though 
made for the living, were habitually buried with the dead, and 
hence pass over into the sepulchral class. 

Cinerary Urns. — These are of every size, from the capacity 
of less than a pint to that of more than a bushel. Those from 
nine to ten inches in height are medium sized, those from one 
foot to fifteen inches are large, and above this height they are 
exceptionally large, and very rare. The largest urn, hitherto 
found in Wiltshire,^ is barrel-shaped, and measures over twenty- 
four inches in height, see Fig. 68. It is preserved in the Black- 
more Collection, at Salisbury, and was exhumed from a barrow 

* The notorious "Flint Jack" invariably Jired his "British Urns!" in 
this manner. The native American method is similar. 

2 Thurnam, " Anc. Brit. Barrows," in " Archaeologia, " vol. xliii., part 
2, p. 344, 353> Fig. 28. 



128 



The Bishopsio7i Urn. 




Tig. 68. Urn from Bowl-shaped Barrow at Bishopston, Wilts. 

Height 24| inches.' 

at Bishopston by Mr. F. Sidford, Dr. Blackmore, and myself, 
in 1867. The barrow was probably never of any great height, 
and the plough had nearly reduced it to the level of the sur- 
rounding soil ; at length the plough-share struck the urn, 
fortunately without doing much mischief Mr. Sidford is a 
staunch archaeologist, and instead of breaking-up the vessel, in 
order to see whether it was brittle, a mode of proceeding by no 
means unusual, he left things as they were, and rode into 
Salisbury to secure our help ; the result is that the largest urn 
at present found in Wiltshire has escaped destruction. The 
decoration of this urn is of the "thumb-nail" kind. Nearly 



1 cc 



Arclijeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 350, Fig, 28. 



' ' Incense Cups. " 129 

all the surface soil, which may at one time have coated this 
barrow had been removed by the plough, it resembled a heap 
of flints ready to lay upon a road, for they were not unworked 
nodules — all had been flaked, and they may have been in- 
tended to serve as a kind of relieving arch over the interment, 
such as that formed of sarsen blocks shown in Fig. 65. On 
removing the flints, we find that the urn had been placed in 
a shallow " cist" scooped out in the chalk ; the natural surface 
of the chalk was sloping, so that the cist was not a hole, but 
formed a crescent-shaped protecting-wall around the urn, 
which was inverted over a large quantity of ashes, burnt 
almost to a powder, no objects were found associated with 
the interment. Barrel-shaped urns, although rather common 
in the barrows of Dorset, are rare in those of Wiltshire, only 
one, from a barrow within a third of a mile of Stonehenge, is 
figured by Sir Richard Hoare. It is the largest obtained by 
him entire, and measures over twenty-two inches in height. 

Cinerary urns have been divided by Dr. Thurnam^ into the 
following classes : — 

a. With Overhanging Rim. e. Flower-pot shaped. 

b. With Moulded Rim. f. Cylindrical. 

c. With Border in place of Rim. g. Globular. 

d. Barrel-shaped. 

Of These a are the most common. A cinerary urn found at 
Bulford, Wilts, is shown in Fig. 69. Some of the cinerary 
urns have cracked, perhaps in making, and occasionally neatly- 
bored holes occur on each side of the crack, evidently to admit 
of the passage of a thong or cord, by means of which the 
vessel might be held together. 

Incense Cups. — The small fictile vessels, first named "In- 
cense Cups" by Hoare, are a rather frequent accompaniment 
of interments after cremation. They are much less common 
in the barrows of Dorset than in those of Wiltshire. They 
seldom exceed two inches in height \ their capacity ranging 
from about the twelfth to the fourth of a pint. The variety in 
form is very great. Dr. Thurnam has divided them in three 
principal classes. 

a. The Simple Cup. 

b. The Contracted Cup. 

c. The Expanded Cup. 

^ "Anc. Brit. Barrows," l.c.^ pp. 345 — 357. 

K 



130 Sepulchral Pottery. 




Fig. 69. Urn from Btjlford, Wilts. Height 12J inches.^ 

and he again subdivides these three classes.^ Examples of the 
" Expanded Cup" are confined to the barrows of the south- 
west of England, and almost to Wiltshire ; even there it is of 
rare occurrence, no more than five examples being known. 

A very large proportion of these little vessels are pierced on 
one side only with two holes, from half an inch to two inches 
apart. It may be that a thong or string was intended to be 
passed through these holes, which would thus form a loop, and 
enable the vessel to be carried in the hand. In rare examples, 
these vessels have been provided with holes on both sides, the 
use of two thongs, one on either side, would have served more 
completely to keep the vessel upright when carried, the two 
loops in such a case would serve the purpose of the cross- 
handles to a basket. 

A variety of the " Expanded Cup" has been named, by Dr. 
Thurnam, the '' Basket Cup ;" in these the sides are open and 
resemble basket-work. The best example of this variety is 
from Wiltshire, and is shown in Fig. 70. It was obtained, by 
the late Mr. Albert Way, from a tumulus at Bulford, four miles 
from Stonehenge. 

^ " Archseologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 350, Fig. 27. 
2 I.e. pp. 359—377- 



^' Ince?ise Clips''' a?icl Food Vessels. 131 




Fig 70. Incense Cup from Bulpord, Wilts.' f. 

Food Vessels. — This form of fictile vessel is found with both 
burnt and unburnt bodies. Dr. Thurnam distinguishes four 
varieties of Food Vessels : — 

a. Undecorated Urn-shaped. 

b. Partially decorated Urn-shaped. 

c. Decorated Bowl-shaped. 

d. Decorated shallow Bowl-shaped. 

Food vessels are rare in the barrows of Wiltshire and the 
South of England, there are no examples in the Stourhead 
Museum ; but they become common as we go northwards, and 
in the barrows of Derbyshire and Staffordshire they are of 
frequent occurrence, and are still more so in Yorkshire. In 
Scotland they are likewise common, but are commonest of all 
in Ireland. 

Food vessels, as well as "drinking cups," are generally found 
upright ; they have probably contained food and drink placed 
in the tomb as offerings. 

Drinking Cups. — The most handsome of the fictile vessels 
of the Ancient Britons are the drinking cups. They are 
usually tall vessels of seven or eight inches in height, thin and 
well baked, made from clay tempered with sand or finely 
pounded stone. The general capacity is from two to three 
pints, though a few contain less than one, and others as much 
as four pints. 

Drinking cups are the accompaniment of unburnt bodies, 
and were placed in the grave near the head, or, more frequently 

^ *' Archccologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 366, Fig. 50. 

K 2 



132 



Drinking 



Clips. 




Fig. 71. Drinking Cup, from East Kennett, Wilts. 

Height 71 inches.^ 

(In Wiltshire twice as often), near the feet. Drinking cups 
occur more often in the barrows of Wiltshire than in those of 
any other part of England. Dr. Thurnam has arranged 
Drinking cups in three classes : — 

a. High-brimmed Globose Cup. 

b. Ovoid Cup with Recurved Rim. 

c. Low-brimmed Cup. 



*' Archaeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 392, 



Fig. 



83- 



Drinkijig Cups. 



133 




Fig. 72. Drinking Cup, pound with Secondary Interment, 
WiLSFORD Long Barrow, Wilts. 1 

The High-brimmed Globose Drinking Cup {a) is the pre- 
vailing type in South Britain, and to it four-fifths, probably, of 
the known examples belong. The ornamentation is profuse 
and elaborate, see Fig. 71. The Drinking Cup shown in 
Fig. 7 2 was found with a secondary interment in a long barrow 
at Wilsford, opened by Dr. Thurnam. The interment had 

^ " Archreologia, " vol. xlii., part I, p. 196, Fig. 5. 



134 Stone Implemeiits fowid in Round Barrows. 

been by inhumation, in the contracted or crouched position, 
and close to the skull was found the drinking cup, it is, says 
Dr. Thurnam, '' of the latest highly decorated type, such as 
are usually only met with in the most modern circular British 
tumuli; and have in no case been found with the primary 
interments of long barrows." The skull found with the 
drinking cup was of the usual broad type (brachycephalous) 
found in the round barrows, and not of the long type present 
in primary interments in long barrows. Such instances go to 
prove the greater relative antiquity of the long barrows, for no 
instance of a secondary interment of the long barrow kind has 
been observed in a round barrow. 

Stone Bnplements found in the Round Barrows of Wiltshire. — 
The Round Barrows of this county are to be referred to the 
Bronze Age, and the presence of implements of stone in some 
of them does not militate against this ; for implements of stone 
continued to be used for many purposes both in the Bronze 
Age and the Iron Age. Of the stone implements found by 
Sir R. C. Hoare, in the large number of barrows opened by 
him, there were only four wedge-shaped hatchets ; these were 
associated with unburnt bodies, and three of the specimens 
were found with the same interment, in a barrow at Upton 
Lovel. Of other classes of stone implements, there were 
found seven perforated hammers or hammer-axes, four with 
unburnt, three with burnt bodies. Five are true hammer-axes, 
with a cutting-edge at one end, and a rounded or flat-butt end 
at the other. Of the other two, one is of ovoid form, and the 
other, shown in Fig. 73, was found in a barrow, near Wilsford, 
a village through which we passed after leaving Lake House ; 
this specimen is without a true cutting-edge. Only two other 
perforated axes are stated to have been found in barrows near 
Stonehenge, one is preserved in the British Museum, the other 
is in the Christy Collection. Sir R. C. Hoare found celts or 
dagger-blades of bronze associated with three of the stone 
hammer-axes exhumed by him, showing that bronze and stone 
implements were in contemporary use. Flint dagger-blades, 
although common in Denmark, are of rare occurrence in the 
barrows of this country. Leaf-shaped flint javelin-heads have 
in rare instances been found in the barrows of Wiltshire. Dr. 
Thurnam had the good fortune to find a set of four in an oval 
barrow at Winterbourn Stoke, about a mile and a half to the 



Flint Arrow-heads fou7id in Round Barrows. 



135 




Fig. 73. Stone Hammee-axe ok Maul. From Wilsford, Wilts.' §• 

left of our homeward route. These are very remarkable for 
the elegance of their form and workmanship, all the surfaces 
and edges being elaborately chipped, see Fig. 74. Three are 
of a delicate leaf-shape ; the fourth is lozenge-shaped. They 
lay at the head of a doubled-up skeleton. Smaller leaf-shaped 
flints, evidently arrow-heads, are occasionally met with in the 
barrows, though very rarely in those of Wiltshire. Barbed flint 
arrow-heads are found both with burnt bodies and with inter- 
ments after cremation. The beautiful specimen shown in Fig. 
75 was found in a barrow at Woodyates, Dorset ; and was 
figured by Hoare. It is remarkable for the great size and 
inward curvature of its barbs, thrice the length of the stem. 

According to several finds, it would appear that from three 
to six arrow-heads constituted an outfit. With the four found 
with the Woodyates interment was a large bronze dagger-blade, 
again showing the contemporary use of stone and bronze 
weapons. 

Flint flakes, and knives and scrapers of flint, occur in the 
barrows. In not a few barrows, in more or less proximity to 
the interments, flakes of flint and pieces of broken pottery, 

" Shards, flints, and pebbles," 

are found in considerable numbers ; the traces, it may be, of a 

' " Archaeologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 411, Fig. 97. 



136 



Flint arrow-heads foimd in Round Bai-rows. 




pagan custom, referred to in a 
well-known passage of Shakes- 
peare. 

Bone pins occur in the bar- 
rows as well as many objects 
made from bone. 

Bronze. — The objects of bronze 
from the Wiltshire barrows very 
much exceed those of stone. 
All the bronze celts are of the 




Fig. 74. Leaf-shaped Flint Fig. 7.5. Stemmed and Barbed 

Javelin-head, found in Oval Flint Arrow-head. From 

Barrow at Winterbotjrne Woodyates, Dorset. ^ }. 
Stoke, Wilts. ^ 

wedge-shaped (earlier) type; the specimen shown in Fig. 76 
was found, associated with gold ornaments, in " Bush Bar- 
row," Normanton, close to our route; it measures 6^ inches 
in length, 2^ in breadth, and is only ^ inch in greatest 
thickness. It has side-flanges, and slightly thickens towards 
the middle, there being a sharp transverse line on both sides 
from which the bevelled surfaces slope, corresponding to the 
stop in the palstave type of celt. No other tumuli in England 
have been so productive of bronze dagger-blades as those of 

^ I am indebted to Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., for the loan of this wood- 
block. It is from his valuable work, '*Anc. Stone Impts. of Gt. Brit.," 
p. 331, Fig. 274. It also appears in the " Arch^eologia, " vol. xliii., part 
2, p. 414, Fig. loi^. 

^ " Archaeologia," vol. xliii,, part 2, p. 418, Fig. 107. 



Bronze Implements found in Round Barrows. 1 3 7 



Wiltshire. They occur rather more frequently with unburnt 
bodies, than with burnt. With three of the smaller blades 
were the remains of sheaths of wood. With six of larger size 

were traces of similar sheaths, 
two of them lined with linen, 
" the web of which was still 
to be distinguished." One of 
these scabbards had been 
highly ornamented " with in- 
dentations which had certainly 
been gilt." 

The remains of handles were 
often noticed, these were fre- 
quently of wood. In some in- 
stances, the handles had been 
strengthened by an oval pom- 
mel of bone. One miniature 
knife, in the Stourhead collec- 
tion, is elegantly mounted in 
a handle formed of two pieces 
of amber, secured by two rivets 
and bound with four strips of 
gold. The bronze blade is only 
half an inch in length, and is 
fixed at a right angle with its 
handle, which is one inch in 
length. 

The only perfect bronze dag- 
ger from a tumulus in Wilt- 
shire is of the thin broad- 
bladed variety. The handle 
is of wood, held together by 
thirty rivets of bronze, and 
strengthened at the end by an 
oblong bone pommel fastened 
with two pegs. It is decorated 
by dots incised in the surface 
of the wood, forming a border 
of double lines, and circles between the heads of the rivets. It 
was found at Milston, about four miles to the north-east of 

1 " Archi-eologia," vol. xliii., part 2, p. 444, Fig. 147. 




Fig. 73. Bronze Wedge-shaped 
Celt. From "'Bush Barrow," 
N ORM ANTON, Wilts. 1 §. 



138 The Brofize Age divided into Two Periods. 

Stonehenge. The handle of one of the largest Wiltshire 
daggers (blade 10)^ inches long), is a marvellous specimen of 
delicate workmanship. It is of wood, studded with an infinity 
of gold pins of almost microscopic size, forming a beautiful 
zigzag pattern ; it was found in " Bush Barrow," Normanton. 

Personal ornaments of bronze are of rare occurrence in 
British tumuli, and very few have been found in our county. 
A fine bronze bracelet encircling the arm of a skeleton was 
found in a barrow at Normanton, near Stonehenge. It is a 
broad flat band, profusely ornamented with vertical and hori- 
zontal lines, and with chevrons at the ends, which overlap. In 
the barrows of Wiltshire, the ornaments most frequently met 
with are of amber, of which we have seen such good examples 
in the Lake Collection.^ 

The implements and weapons of bronze found associated 
with primary interments in British round-barrows are, as we 
have seen, 7vedge-shaped celts and dagger-blades. Socketed 
celts, leaf-shaped swords, gouges, and chisels, although of fre- 
quent occurrence in " finds," are not met with in these barrows ; 
and, on the other hand, wedge-shaped celts and dagger blades 
(such as those found in these barrows), are not present in the 
" finds." This circumstance has led many to suppose that the 
Bronze Age, like the Stone Age, is susceptible of subdivision 
into two periods. " I argue," says Canon Greenwell, " that 
these different sets of implements belong to quite two different 
periods in the use of bronze. The one to the early period, 
when bronze was extremely scarce, and stone was the general 
material in use for a variety of implements ; the other and 
later period, that of these great ' finds,' in which have been 
discovered the sword, and the spear, and the celt, belonging to 
a time when stone, though yet to some extent in use, had been 
largely superseded by bronze. "^ Our Wiltshire barrows, ac- 
cording to this, belong to the earlier part of the Bronze Age, 
we may alm.ost say to a period when the use of stone over- 
lapped that of bronze ; for, " there are periods of over- 
lapping," says Mr. Evans, "when the one Age shades off into 
the other, and in the case of both bronze and stone antiquities 
it is very difficult indeed to assign to a given specimen a 
definite date, or to say that any one Neolithic implement was 

^ Ante, pp. 60 — 61, Figs, if — 20. 
- "Proceed. Soc. Antiq.," 2nd series, vol. v., pp. 414, 415. 



Chronology of the Bronze Age in Britain. 139 

in use at a time when bronze was absolutely unknown."^ 
Still these ages appear to have succeeded each other in definite 
order. 

*' As to the chronology of the Bronze Period in Britain, we 
are to a great extent at fault. We know that when this 
country was first invaded by the Romans iron was in use, 
and probably had been for some centuries, as we know to 
have been the case in Gaul and Germany. But though, at 
the time of the Roman Invasion, the Bronze Period may be 
said to have ceased in this country, it is almost impossible 
to say at what date it may have commenced, nor indeed 
absolutely at what date it ceased. No doubt there was an 
over-lapping of the Bronze into the Iron Period. Still it 
does appear to me by no means improbable," adds Mr. Evans, 
''that bronze celts may have remained in this country down to, 
at all events, within a century or so of the invasion of Caesar. 
What may be eventually discovered as to the duration of the 
Bronze Period in Britain no one can foretell, but at the present 
time we can only say, from the number of objects found, and 
the different circumstances under which they have been dis- 
covered, that in all probability it extended over a period of 
several hundred years. We may by means of ' finds' to some 
extent assign different articles to different portions of the 
Bronze Period, but to how early a date the use of the small 
knife-daggers^ and the plain celts may extend, is, to my mind, 
a problem which is not likely soon to receive a satisfactory 
answer."^ 

One thing seems tolerably certain, bronze implements were 
made in Britain, and were not (at all events, generally) intro- 
duced into this country ready-cast, by means of traffic or 
barter. Moulds for casting such implements have been found 
in Britain, as well as all the tools likely to have been required 
by the pre-historic bronze-founder, associated with the waste 
of manufacture, and imperfectly cast weapons. In a " find" 
of bronze objects, in the Isle of Harty (part of the Isle of 
Sheppey), were rough pieces of metal as well as cast imple- 
ments. There was also a mould for casting socketed celts, 

^ Evans, "Proceed. Soc. Antiq.," 2nd series, vol. v., p. 393. 
" Such as are found associated with primary interments in our Wiltshire 
round harrows. 

•* " Proceed. Soc. Antiq.," 2nd series, vol. v., pp. 411, 412. 



T40 Bronze Implements cast in Britain. 

consisting of two halves, which fit together with a couple of 
dowels, also a celt that had been cast in this very mould, for 
there is a particular hollow on one face of the mould and a 
corresponding projection on the celt. Upon attempting to fit 
this celt into the mould the cutting-edge was found to be both 
too broad and too long — the celt had been hammered, and, 
as it were, tempered after it was cast. In the " find" was a 
bronze hammer with which this (probably) had been effected ; 
the founder seems to have understood how to mix his metals, 
for the hammer is not cast of ordinary bronze, but of another 
alloy of, copper and tin, so as to give it greater hardness. 
Even the whetstone, that may have served in giving the 
finished edge to the celt, was included in the '' Harty find." 
The socket-hole of such a celt was (probably) formed by 
means of a clay " core," in some unfinished celts this core is 
still to be seen, the question arises how would these hard- 
burnt clay cores have been removed ? This receives an 
answer from the presence of a pointed tool in the " Harty 
find," which was probably used as a pick to get out the cores 
after the celts had been cast, and this receives some support 
from the circumstance that the old founder had broken off 
the point of one of these tools, at a place exactly corre- 
sponding with the depth of the celt-socket.^ Mr. Franks adds 
his testimony to the opinion that even ready-mixed bronze was 
not imported into Britain, but that the alloy was made in this 
country, as required from time to time. " It seems quite un- 
questionable," he says, " that the greater part of the bronze 
types found in Britain were made in this country ; we find 
the moulds, the imperfectly cast weapons, and also the lumps 
of pure copper from which they were made, and it is there- 
fore absolutely certain that the ancient brass-founders were 
using tin on the spot at the time that they made the imple- 
ments. "^ 

Ornaments of Gold. — Trinkets of gold were found in seven 
Wiltshire tumuH, in four with unburnt, and in three with burnt 
bodies. In most of these there were several objects of the 
precious metal, and altogether nineteen golden ornaments or 
sets of ornaments may be enumerated. All, as Sir R. C. 
Hoare believed, were formed by first modelling in wood, and 

^ See Evans, " Proceed. Soc. Antiq.," 2nd series, vol. v., pp. 408, 409. 
^ " Proceed. Soc. Antiq.," 2nd series, vol. v., p. 418. 



Remains of Animals. 



141 





covering the wooden nucleus, with a plate of gold, which was 
made to overlap, and then fastened by indentation. One 
large doubly-conical bead, made of two such plates, is orna- 
mented with concentric rings, and per- 
forated lengthwise. Fig. "]"] b,it was found 
at Normanton, near Stonehenge. Other 
examples of gold ornaments are shown 
in Fig. 77. 

Remains of Animals. — Antlers and 
bones of the red-deer and the roe-deer 
occur in the Wiltshire barrows. Two 
antlers of roe-deer were found, with an 
interment, in a tumulus at Figheldean, 
with two bronze dagger-blades ; they are 
right and left horns, which have not been 
shed, one of them is reduced in length, 
apparently with a knife. In this same 
barrow were likewise the left tusks of 
three large boars. These, with the asso- 
ciated human crania, were presented to 
the Salisbury Museum, by the late E. 
Dyke Poore, Esq. 

Remains of domesticated herbivorous 
animals are rarely met with in the round 
barrows. Some skulls of oxen i^Bos 
longif'ons) have been found. In a few 
tumuli remains of dogs have been met 
with. In one barrow (Anc. Wilts I. 86), 
a horse had been buried near the summit, 
over an interment by cremation. 

On comparing the fauna of the Round 
barrows with that of the Long barrows it 
does not appear that the one is sepa- 
rated from the other by any marked line. 
The group of mammalia is distinguished 
from that found in Quaternary deposits, 
such as that at Fisherton, by the absence 
of certain animals, and by the presence 
of Bos lo7igifrons, dog, goat, and (per- 
haps) sheep. 






1 (( 



Archgeologia," vol. xliii. , part 2, p. 525, Fig. 2i_^ — 17. 



142 Remains of Man. — Stwunary. 

Remains of Man. — The type of human skull found in the 
Round barrows is of the short or round form {brachy cephalic) ; 
not a single example of the really lengthened form {dolichoce- 
phalic), has been met with in a round barrow. The people of 
the Long-barrow Stone Age were of less than middle stature ; 
those of the Round-barrow Bronze Age were tall. The mean 
stature, derived from 52 measurements, was five feet six inches 
for the men of the Long barrows, and five feet nine inches for 
those of the Round barrows.^ 

To sum up what has been said, in Dr. Thurnam's own 
words. 

" The Long Barrows, in accordance with the geological cha- 
racter of the districts in which they occur, are either simple 
tumuli of earth, chalk rubble and flints, as in South Wilts and 
Dorsetshire ; or they contain more or less elaborately built-up 
chambers, galleries or cists of large stones, as in North Wilts 
and Gloucestershire. Whether, however, they enclose mega- 
lithic chambers or not, the sepulchral deposits are almost 
invariably found at or near the broad and high end of the 
tumulus, which is generally directed towards the east. But, 
what is most important, in no case whatever have the primary 
interments yielded objects of metal, whether bronze or iron ; 
though in several instances implements or weapons of bone 
and stone have been found with them. Among the latter are 
specially to be noticed certain delicate, well-chipped arrow- 
heads of flint, of a leaf-shape ; and probably, as at Uley, axe- 
heads of flint and green-stone, both polished. I therefore 
think we do not err in attributing this form of tumulus, as it 
occurs in the south-west of England, to the Neolithic period, 
and to a period when the burning of the dead, though not 
unknown, was not a generally received or favourite method of 
disposing of their remains. 

"The Round Barrows, whether simply conoid or bowl- 
shaped, or of the more elaborate bell or disc forms, are very 
much more numerous than the long barrows of the same 
district. They much more frequently cover interments after 
cremation than by simple inhumation ; in the proportion of at 
least three of the former to one of the latter. As, however, 
the objects found with the burnt bones, and with the entire 
skeletons in this class of barrows, do not difl"er in character, 
but in addition to implements and weapons of stone (including 

^ Thurnam, "Mem. Anthrop. Soc," vol. iii., p. 71. 



Difference in the Cranial Type. 143 

beautifully barbed arrow heads of flint), not unfrequently com- 
prise other implements of bro7ize, and also the finer and more 
decorated sorts of ancient British Jictilia, — the so-called 
" drinking cups" and " incense cups" — we may safely conclude 
that all are of the same Bronze Age, during which, in this part 
of Britain, cremation, though not the exclusive, was the pre- 
vailing mode of interment."^ 

The following is a " summary," says Dr. Thurnam, " of the 
inferences which seem fairly dedacible from the observed facts, 
as interpreted by the light of those scanty historical notices 
which have come down to us. 

" I. The skulls from the primary interments in the long 
barrows of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and it is believed 
of south Britain in general, are of a strongly marked dolicho- 
cephalic type, having a mean breadth-index of -71; which 
is much lower than that of any modern European people. 
No brachycephalic skull, with a breadth-index of 'So or up- 
wards, has been obtained from the primeval interments in 
these barrows. No objects of metal or decorated pottery are 
known to have been found with these interments, but only 
those of stone, bone or horn. We therefore refer these long 
barrows to the Stone Age. 

" II. The skulls from the primary interments in the round 
barrows of the same districts, and it is believed of south 
Britain in general are of more or less brachycephalous propor- 
tions, having a mean breadth-index of "81 ; much higher than 
that now found in the population of any part of England and 
Wales.2 Objects of bronze, and very rarely of iron, and richly 
decorated pottery, are often found in them, with or without 
objects of stone. These round barrows therefore we refer to 
the Bronze Age, and to that of bronze and iron transition. 

" III. The skulls from secondary interments in the upper 
strata of the long barrows are in most cases of similar brachy- 
cephalous proportions with those from the primary interments 
in the round barrows. They have, in a few instances, been 
found in connection with decorated British pottery, altogether 
identical with that of the round barrows. They are doubtless 

^Thurnam, "Anc. Brit. Barrows of Wilts," read at the Opening of 
the Blackmore Museum. See " Some Account of the Blackmore Mus.," 
published by the "Wilts. Archaeol. Soc," part i, pp. 38 — 40. 

2 See Table by Dr. Beddoe. " Mem. Anthrop. Soc," ii., 350. 



144 "^^^^ WiltsJm-e Dolichocephali. 

the remains of the same people as those by whom the circular 
barrows were erected ; and for all intents and purposes may be 
regarded as round-barrow skulls. 

'' IV. It has never been pretended that there is any neces- 
sary connection between long skulls and long barrows, or 
round skulls and round barrows ; and the dolichocephalic 
people who in this part of England buried in long barrows, 
may have elsewhere erected circular tumuli over their dead. 
The important question does not regard the form of their 
tombs, so much as the sequence of the two peoples in the 
order of time and civilization. As to this, it is contended that 
the long heads were the true primeval race ; and that they 
were succeeded by a taller, more powerful, and more civilized 
people, who gradually extended themselves, and became domi- 
nant through a great part, perhaps nearly the whole, of the 
island. 

"V. These British dolichocephalic or long-heads, are the 
earliest people whose sepulchral monuments can be shown to 
remain to us. The exploration of their tombs — the long 
barrows — show that they buried their dead entire, and almost 
always without cremation ; that they possessed herds of small 
short-horned oxen — the Bos longifrons, or Bos brachyceros — 
that they subsisted largely by the chase of the red-deer and 
wild boarj that some of their customs were barbarous in the 
extreme ; and in particular, that if not addicted to anthropo- 
phagism, they at least sacrificed many human victims, whose 
cleft skulls and half-charred bones are found in their tombs. 

" VI. The brachycephalous people, or round-heads, who 
buried in the round barrows, were more civilized than the 
dolichocephali ; and may be inferred to have brought with them 
the more common use, if not the first knowledge of bronze. 
The exploration of their tombs shows that burning the dead 
was with them the prevailing and fashionable, though not the 
exclusive mode of burial ; and the appearances are consistent 
with what we are told of the funerals of the Gauls (their sup- 
posed congeners), by Caesar and Pomponius Mela. From the 
same source, or the appearances in their tombs, we should 
infer that they had advanced from the nomadic, hunting and 
pastoral condition, to a more settled agricultural stage of 
culture ; and that if they had not altogether abandoned the 
more barbarous customs of their ancestors, and in particular 



Of'igin and Ethnic Affijiities of the Two Races, 145 

that of human sacrifice, they had at least restricted them 
within narrow limits. 

"VII. There is no proof, nor is it the least probable, that 
the brachycephalic extirpated the earlier dolichocephalic 
people. It is far more likely that they reduced them to 
slavery, or drove them in part into the interior and western 
parts of the island. When once reduced to obedience, they 
may have lived with them on friendly terms, and even mingled 
with them in domestic relations. In some districts, the 
hrachycephali would probably entirely replace the earlier race ; 
whilst in others, the dolichocephali would live on under the 
supremacy of their more powerful neighbours. A mingling 
of the remains of the two peoples in their later tombs must 
almost certainly have ensued. 

" VIII. The two races, whose existence is made known to 
us by researches in the tumuli, are most naturally identified 
with the two peoples, strongly contrasted in their manners, 
whom Caesar describes in well known passages of the twelfth 
and fourteenth chapters of the 5th book of his Commentaries.^ 
According to this, the round-heads of the Bronze Age are the 
same as the agricultural people of the maritime districts, who 
are said by Caesar to have migrated from Belgic Gaul ; and 
the long-headed people of the Stone Age are the ancestors of 
the pastoral and less civilised tribes of the interior, reputed 
aboriginal, and who prior to the coming of the others — as to 
which event there is no certain note of time — must have occu- 
pied, and been dominant in the maritime parts, as well as in 
the interior of the island. 

" IX. The origin and ethnic affinities of these two peoples 
can only be discussed conjecturally and tentatively in the pre- 
sent state of science. An often-quoted passage in the Agricola 
of Tacitus seems however to indicate part of the probable 

1 " Britanniae pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in insula ipsa, 
memoria proditum dicunt. Maritima pars ab iis, qui praedse ac belli 
inferendi causa ex Belgis transierant ; qui omnes fere iis nominibus civi- 
tatum appellantur, quibus orti ex civitatibus eo pervenerant, et bello illato 
ibi remanserunt atque agros colere cceperunt. . . . Ex his omnibus 
longe sunt humanissimi, qui Cantium incolunt, quee regio est maritima 
omnis, neque multum a Gallica difFerunt consuetudine. Interiores plerique- 
frumenta non serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt, pellibusque sunt vestiti." 
{B. G., v., 12, 14). Whilst it is seen that the Belgic tribes near the coast 
were comparatively civilized agriculturists, the people of the interior were 
much less cultivated, and still in the hunting and pastoral condition. 

L 



146 Origin and Ethnic Affinities of the Two Races. 

solution.^ The great Roman historian points out, first, the 
dark complexion and curly hair of the western tribe of the 
Silures ; and, secondly, the similarity of the appearance of the 
southern Britons to their neighbours in Gaul. And he adduces 
the very obvious argument, from these differences of physiog- 
nomy and appearance, that the Silures were descended from 
the Iberians of Spain, whilst the southern and south-eastern 
Britons were derived from the people of the opposite coast of 
Gaul. As evidence of this last position, Tacitus refers to the 
similarity of the religion, language, moral and mental tempera- 
ment of the Britons and Gauls. It is not improbable that in 
this passage the Silures are named Kare^oxvv as a principal 
tribe, and as representative of others not like themselves, con- 
fined to the extreme west of the island. By Caesar, however, 
who knew nothing of the west of Britain, the Silures would be 
regarded as interior es, just as the regions producing tin were, 
and termed by him mediterranei. The proximi Gallis of 
Tacitus are clearly the same people as those of the maritima 
pars of Caesar. 

"X, The geographer Strabo is another important witness for 
a great difference in the features and personal characteristics of 
the Iberians and Gauls. In the course of his fourth book, he 
twice tells us that the Iberians differed entirely in their bodily 
conformation from the Gauls of both 'Celtica' and 'Belgica;' 
who he expressly says participated in the common Gaulish 
physiognomy.^ It is evident, that if we interpret this observa- 
tion of Strabo's by the light of that first quoted from Tacitus, 
we must picture the Iberians as a swarthy or melanous people, 
with dark complexion and curly dark hair. They would thus 
be strongly contrasted with the Gauls ; who by the classical 
writers are uniformly represented as fair or xanthous, and 
moreover as of tall stature. Compared with the Gauls, the 
Iberians, like other southern Europeans, were probably a 
people of short stature. We derive no light from the remains 
in the barrows, as to the colour of the hair and the complexion 

^ Tac. Agric. xi. " Silurum colorati vultus torti plerumque crines 
(Jornandes adds, ' et nigri') et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres 
trajecisse easque sedes occupasse, fidem faciunt. Proximi Gallis et similes 
sunt. ... In universum tamen sestimanti Gallos vicinum solum 
occupasse credibile est." 

2 Strabo, iv., I, § i.; iv., 2, § i. Tous Se Xoiirovs TaXariK^v /xey rijv 



Origin and Ethnic Affinities of the Two Races. 147 

of the people buried in them : but they do enable us to 
ascertain a difference of stature. The measurement of the 
skeletons, and especially of the thigh-bones, from the long 
barrows and the round barrows respectively, clearly demon- 
strates that the dolichocephali of the former, as compared with 
the brachycephali of the latter, were a people of short stature. 
The mean height, as calculated from the measurement of 52 
male skeletons or femora, was about 5 feet 6 inches in the 
one, and 5 feet 9 inches in the other, the average difference 
being no less than three inches. 

" XI. The cranial type of the ancient Iberians has not yet 
been so conclusively ascertained as is to be desired. But the 
examination of the large series of skulls of modern Spanish 
Basques, at Paris, as well as of such Spanish and Portuguese 
skulls as exist in English and Dutch collections, altogether 
justifies the presumption that the Iberians of antiquity were a 
decidedly dolichocephalous people. 

" XI I. The British brachychocephali of the Bronze Age are 
to be regarded as an offshoot, through the Belgic Gauls, from 
the great brachycephalous stock of central and north-eastern 
Europe and Asia ; in all the countries of which — France, 
Switzerland, South Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, and 
Finland — the broad and short cranial type is still the prevailing 
one. 

" The earlier British dolichocephali of the Stone Age were, 
we, think, either derived from the ancient Iberians, or from a 
common source with that people. Not only was Spain peopled 
by the Iberian race, but even in historical times, a considerable 
part of Gaul ; and there is no improbability in the conclusion 
of its having occupied the British Islands likewise, as is, indeed, 
asserted by some ancient historians.^ 

^ Dionysius and his paraphraser Priscian, say expressly that the Cassi- 
terides were peopled by the Iberians : — " populos tenuit quas fortis Iberi." 
[Dion., "Perieg." v., 563; Priscian, "Perieg." v., 578.] The Cassi- 
terides are termed by these writers the Western Isles whence tin proceeds — a 
mere paraphrase of the word Cassiterides, Under this last designation, as 
used by the ancients, not only the Scilly Isles, but the Damnonian pro- 
montory and coasts were generally included. The very ancient notice of 
the Cassiterides preserved by Strabo, represents the inhabitants as nomadic 
and pastoral, clothed in long tunics, covered by black mantles ; a garb 
identical with that of the ancient Iberians of Spain, who are likewise 
described by the geographers, Diodorus and Strabo, as inelanchlceni, or 
black robed. [Diod. Sic, lib. v., c. 33; Strabo, lib. iii., c. 3, § 7 ; 
c. 5> § 2.] 

L 2 



148 Origin and EtJmic Affinities of the Two Races. 

"XIII. As to the origin of the Iberians themselves^ it is 
better to confess our ignorance, than to indulge in premature 
speculations. Some, — as Professor Vogt, would bring them 
from America, by way of a lost Atlantis, or ' connecting land 
between Florida and our own Continent, which in the middle 
tertiary (Miocene) period, was still above the water.' Others, 
as M. Broca, search for them in Northern Africa ; others, in 
the more or less far East : whilst Professor Huxley finds in 
their crania, as in those of the other dolichocephali of Western 
Europe, Australian affinities, though without deciding on * the 
ethnological value of the osteological resemblance.' 

" XIV. In conclusion, I am content with having established, 
from archaeological and osteological data, at least to my own 
satisfaction, the existence in this island of the west, of two 
distinct races in pre-Roman times. One of these, I may 
repeat, which had lost its supremacy, at least in the south of 
the island, being the earlier and dolichocephalic, was probably 
Tberic ; the other being the later and brachycephalic, was 
probably Gaulish, or in other words, Belgic."^ 

According to Dr. Thurnam's opinion then, the round-headed 
people of the Wiltshire round barrows " are to be regarded 
as an offshoot from the Belgic Gauls," they were in their 
Bronze Age, in what may, perhaps, be called the " Early 
Bronze Age."^ 

Now, how does this affect the period of the construction 
of Stonehenge, if we suppose that there is any connection 
between Stonehenge and the barrows ? Did the barrows come 
to Stonehenge, or Stonehenge to the barrows ? Were the 
dead buried around an already existing temple, because the 
spot was hallowed by its presence ; or was a temple erected 
at a place already rendered sacred by the burial of the illus- 
trious dead ? 

It has been already mentioned^ that the vallum which 
encircles Stonehenge cuts through a barrow, in which inter- 
ment by cremation had taken place — a tumulus of the round- 
barrow class. This is held to prove that Stonehenge was 

^ Thurnam, " Anc. Brit. Barrows," in "Some Ace. Blackmore 
Museum," part i, pp. 40 — 45. 

^ It is in reference to this that I remarked in a rather loose way, which 
may possibly mislead, " The Belgse were in their Bronze Age" (Ante, 
p. 34, note). At the period of the Roman invasion the Belgae were in 
their Iron Age. 

3 Ante, p. 84. 



Relative Antiquity of Stonehenge and the Barron's. 1 49 

erected after barrows, which as we have seen, are of the 
"Early Bronze Age," nor is this all, for sufficient time had 
elapsed to admit of all respect being lost for the burial-place 
of those whose remains were deposited in these barrows. 

Possibly, however, Stonehenge was erected at two periods^ 
— perhaps widely separated in point of time — the vallum may 
only have been made when the sarsen-stone temple was 
erected around the far earlier temple of foreign stones ; and, 
consequently, the mutilation of these barrows would only help 
us to estimate the relative age of the sarsen-stone temple and 
the barrows. The sacred neighbourhood of the foreign-stone 
" Stonehenge," at a far earlier period, may have been resorted 
to for burial, and hence the barrows may have come to (the 
old) Stonehenge, notwithstanding the apparent evidence to 
the contrary, afforded by the partial destruction of tumuli by 
the vallum. 

There is something more, however, to be said in favor of 
the higher antiquity of the (foreign stone and sarsen stone) 
temple of Stonehenge, it is afforded by the presence of chip- 
pings of the Stonehenge Stones in round barrows. Mr. Long 
says, " the fact that chippings from the stones of both kinds 
have been found intermingled in two of the adjoining barrows 
should be borne in mind in discussing this question."^ 

In one round barrow (No. 16), Stukeley found "bits of red 
and blue marble chippings of the stones of the temple." Sir 
R. C. Hoare also found in this barrow " some fragments of 
sarsen-stones similar to those which form the great trilithons at 
Stonehenge," and, " on removing the earth from over the cist, 
we found a large piece of one of the blue stones (foreign) of 
Stonehenge,^ which Sowerby the naturalist calls a horn stone." 
From this discovery, Sir Richard draws the inference that, 
Stonehenge existed before the barrows were constructed — and 
that " when the tumuli adjoining Stonehenge were raised, the 
plain was covered with the chippings of the stones that had 
been employed in the formation of the stone circle."'* 

The finding of chippings of both kinds of stone, together, has 

^ Ante, p. 94. 2 " Wilts Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 64. 

^ Chippings of foreign stone have been found in three of the barrows 
near Stonehenge, viz., No. 16, No. 30?, and in No. 42. They have also 
been found in the waggon-tracks around the temple, but this does not prove 
much. See Mr. Long, " Wilts Mag,," vol. xvi., p. 66. 

^ "Anc. Wilts.," vol. i, p. 127. 



150 The Possession of a ^^ SouP^ by Ijianimate Objects. 

little bearing upon the contemporaneous erection of circles 
and horseshoes of both kinds of stone ; it only shows that both 
kinds of stone had been dressed at the same place — not neces- 
sarily at the same twte. " There may have been an interval of 
time, greater or less," says Mr. Long, " and the chips may yet 
have become mixed, and have been carried away, together, 
with the earth or chalk of which some of the barrows were com- 
posed. The chips found in these three barrows would go far 
to prove the superior antiquity of Stonehenge to that of these 
particular tumuli."^ 

And if we agree with Mr. Long, Stonehenge must have been 
erected either at a very early period in the Bronze Age by the 
round-headed people of the circular-barrows, or else by the 
long-headed, stone-using, folk of the long barrows. It may be 
well to remember that the long-barrow people were not unused 
to move masses of stone, for they formed chambers of stone 
slabs in their burial-mounds, wherever suitable material for the 
purpose was near at hand. Within these long barrows also 
were placed monoliths and trilithons, evidently with a sym- 
bolical meaning, and, it may be, intended to protect those 
buried there against evil spirits or evil influences. 

Before we take leave of the barrows around Stonehenge — 
of this enormous cemetery not so much of the common people 
as of their chiefs and leaders, there are one or two considera- 
tions that should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. The 
greater number of these tumuli are " round barrows," in which 
the interment has been by cremation, the dead were burned, 
together with weapons, ornaments, and such personal be- 
longings as were judged to be likely to be of service to them 
in another world. This very act of burning to us appears to 
destroy their utility to the deceased, but it was the sotil of these 
things, not their material presence that was supposed to be of 
use to the soti/ of the dead man or woman. 

In the story of Periander, we are told that his dead wife, 
Melissa, refused to give him an oracular response, for she was 
shivering and naked, because the garments buried with her had 
not been burnt, and so were of no use; wherefore, Periander 
plundered the Corinthian women of their best clothes, burned 
them in a great trench, with prayer, and then obtained his 
answer. So that an act of destruction of the material seemed, 
in this instance, to be necessary for the liberation of the soul 

^ ''Wilts. Mag., vol. xvi., p. 67. 



The Possession of a'-'' Sour by Inajiimate Objects. 151 

or essence of the clothing, the only thing of service to the 
ghost. When this destruction was not effected by fire, it is 
possible that the weapon or object was at times broken, pur- 
posely, so that its soul might accompany the soul of its late 
master or mistress to the spirit-land. This may help to explain 
the presence with some interments of weapons, apparently, 
broken before they were deposited in the burial-mound or 
cromlech. Among the Algonquins, it was generally believed 
that the souls, not only of men and animals, but of hatchets 
and other inanimate objects, had to cross the water to the 
Great Village, far away where the sun sets. The Fijian 
believed that : — " If an animal or plant die, its soul imme- 
diately goes to Bolotoo -, if a stone or any other substance is 

broken, immortality is equally its reward If an axe 

or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies its soul for the 
service of the gods." A later writer on Fijian belief says : — 
"Every object is supposed to have its 'kelah.' Axes and 
knives, as well as trees and plants, are supposed to have their 
separate ' kelahs.' The Karen with his axe and cleaver, may 
build his house, cut his rice, and conduct his affairs after death 
as before," that is by means of the "kelah" of his axe and 
other implements. Nor is this idea so absurd as would at 
first appear. The psychological condition of mind which 
can believe in the appearance of ghosts, does not conceive 
of them as naked, but as clothed and armed, as when the 
deceased were in the flesh. When the ghost of Hamlet's 
father appears, we are told that 

" Such was the very armour he had on 
When he the ambitious Norway combated." 

" Such" — but not " the very armour" — it was the phantasmal 
appearance of the armour, the ethereal soul of it. It has been 
reserved for modern spiritualists to arm their " familiars" with 
material objects, so that they may administer real buffets in 
the dark. 

This belief in the possession of a soul by all things, animate 
and inanimate, is almost an essential in a people who can 
develop or appreciate myths ; for, in them, personality and 
life are ascribed not to men and beasts only — but to things — 
rivers, stones, trees, weapons, and all thinajs, are treated as 
living and intelligent beings, are talked to, propitiated, or 
punished, according to circumstances. 

The burning, or breaking of a weapon or other object, does 



152 The Great Bustard. 

not seem, in every instance, to have been deemed necessary 
in order to release the spirit of the object so injured, or, as we 
may say, killed. Savages, in nearly every part of the world, 
bury uninjured weapons with their dead, in the belief that the 
soul of the weapon, not the weapon itself, will accompany its 
former master to the great spirit-land. To give an instance, a 
dead Fijian chief is buried with his club close to his right-hand, 
so that he may defend himself against the opponents he will 
meet as his soul travels on the road to Mbulu. But, we read 
of a Fijian taking such a club from a companion's grave, and 
saying, by way of explanation, to a missionary who stood by, 
" The ghost of the club has gone with him." 

We may believe that the objects found in our Wiltshire 
tumuli were placed there, in the full belief that their ghosts 
would accompany the ghosts of those with whose remains they 
are found associated, to the far-away spirit-land where the sun 
sets. 

If this was the case with such things as weapons and orna- 
ments, it was equally so with the wives or slaves, supposed by 
Dr. Thurnam, to have been sacrificed at, or about, the time of 
the burial. "When a man of rank dies and his soul departs to 
its own place, wherever and whatever that place may be, it is a 
rational inference of early philosophy that the souls of atten- 
dants, slaves, and wives, put to death at his funeral, will make 
the same journey, and continue their service in the next 
world." It is unnecessary to multiply instances of this belief, 
which is almost universal. Among the savage Kayans of 
Borneo : — " Slaves are killed in order that they may follow 
the deceased and attend upon him. Before they are killed, 
the relations who surround them enjoin them to take great 
care of their master when they join him, to watch and shampoo 
him when he is indisposed, to be always near him, and to obey 
all his behests. The female relatives of the deceased then 
take a spear and slightly wound the victims, after which the 
males spear them to death." 

THE GREAT BUSTARD. 

Salisbury Plain, over which we are passing, was at one time 
a favourite resort of the Great Bustard, the largest and most 
noble of our British land birds. 

Like the Red Indian, it has been " improved away" from its 
former haunts. Cultivation increased, the Downs were broken 



The Great Bustard. 153 

up, from its large size the bird was a prominent object to 
sportsmen — these, and other causes, have, unfortunately, led 
to its extinction ; and now, it is only at long intervals that a 
few stragglers from other countries make their appearance in 
the neighbourhood of Stonehenge. 

In former days they were to be seen in, what may be called, 
small flocks. The Rev. W. Chafin, writing rather more than 
fifty years since, mentions that once, between Andover and 
Salisbury, he put up twenty-five bustards at one time. In 
1785 or 1786, Mr. Swayne saw several bustards standing on a 
hill on the Down, about half a mile from Tilshead Lodge,^ 
very near our route. In 1777, Gilbert White was told by a 
carter at a farm on the Downs, near Andover, that twelve 
years previously he had seen a flock of eighteen bustards. 
Pennant says : — " in autumn these (bustards) are (in Wiltshire) 
generally found in large turnip fields near the Downs, and in 
flocks of fifty or more."^ 

" Though SaHsbury Plain in Druid times," writes the Rev. 
William Gilpin,^ " was probably a very busy scene, we now 
(1798) find it wholly uninhabited. Here and there we meet a 
flock of sheep scattered over the side of some rising ground ; 
and a shepherd with his dog attending them ; or perhaps we 
may descry some solitary waggon winding round a distant hill. 
But the only resident inhabitant of this vast waste is the 
bustard. This bird, which is the largest fowl we have in 
England, is fond of all extensive plains, and is found on 
several; but these are supposed to be his principal haunt. 
Here he breeds, and here he spends his summer-day, feeding 
with his mate on juicy berries, and the large dew-worms of the 
heath. As winter approaches, he forms into society. Fifty or 
sixty of them have been seen together. As the bustard leads 
his life in these unfrequented wilds, and studiously avoids the 
haunts of men, the appearance of anything in motion, though 

at a considerable distance, alarms him As he is 

so noble a prize, his flesh so delicate, and the quantity of it so 
large, he is of course frequently the object of the fowler's 
stratagems. But his caution is generally a protection against 
them all. The scene he frequents, affords neither tree to 

^ "Wilts. Mag.," vol. ii., p. 212. 
2 Smith, '• Wilts. Mag.," vol. iii., p. 132. 
3 "Observations on the Western Parts of England," &c., 1798, quoted 
by Mr. Long, "Wilts. Mag.," vol. xvi., pp. 139, 140. 



154 Ptignacity of the Great Bustard. 

shelter, nor hedge to skreen, an enemy ; and he is so tall, that 
when he raises his neck to take a perspective view, his eye 
circumscribes a very wide horizon. All open attempts, there- 
fore, against him are fruitless. The fowler's most promising 
stratagem is to conceal himself in a waggon. The west-country 
waggons, periodically travelling these regions, are objects to 
which the bustard is most accustomed ; and though he retires 
at their approach, he retires with less evident signs of alarm 
than from anything else. It is possible, therefore, if the fowler 
lies close in such concealment, and with a long-barrelled gun 
can direct a good aim, he may make a lucky shot. Sometimes 
also he sHps from the tail of a waggon a couple of swift grey- 
hounds. They soon come up with the bustard, though he 
runs well \ and if they can contrive to reach him, just as he is 
on the point to take wing (an operation which he performs 
with less expedition than is requisite in such critical circum- 
stances) they may perhaps seize him." 

Nor was such a prize unworthy of all this trouble, for a full- 
grown male, in good condition, weighs from twenty-five to 
twenty-eight pounds, and measures forty-five inches in length ; 
the female is not so large, seldom exceeding thirty-six inches in 
length. 

Shy as is the bustard, it has proved itself to be, at times, 
exceedingly bold and pugnacious, and has been known to 
attack those who came near it with the most determined 
ferocity. A case in point occurred in June, 1801. A man, 
whilst riding near Tilshead (about seven miles to the north- 
west of Stonehenge), saw a large bird flying, about sixty yards 
over his head— this proved to be a bustard. "The bird 
alighted on the ground immediately before the horse, which it 
indicated a disposition to attack, and, in fact, very soon began 
the onset." The man dismounted, and endeavoured to secure 
the bird, "after struggling with it nearly an hour he succeeded." 
He brought it to Mr. Bartley, of Tilshead, to whose house he 
was going, and sold it to him for a small sum. At first the 
bird was shy, and refused to take food ; but, ultimately it 
became more tame and would even take its food from the 
hands of those it knew. It remained in Mr. Bartley's posses- 
sion from June, 1801, until the following August. It was 
judged to weigh upwards of twenty pounds ; its height was 
about three and a half feet, and it measured between the 
extremity of its wings (when extended) about five feet. In 



The Bustard kept as a pet at Salisbury. 155 

August, 1 801, Mr. Bartley sold this bird to Lord Temple, for 
thirty guineas. 

About a fortnight subsequently to the taking of this bird, 
another bustard, believed to have been the mate of Mr. 
Bartley's bird, attacked Mr. Grant, a farmer of Tilshead (as 
he was returning from Warminster Market), near Tilshead 
Lodge. Mr. Grant was riding a high-spirited horse, the animal 
took fright and became unmanageable, so this bird was not 
captured. A nest, containing two eggs (rotten), supposed to 
have belonged to these two birds, was found in a wheat field, 
on Market Lavington Down. 

The bustard certainly bred on Salisbury Plain about nine 
years before this; for, in 1792, a traveller was crossing the 
Plain between Devizes and Salisbury, and came upon a bustard. 
The bird started up, and tumbled about as if wounded and 
unable to rise ; the man rode after it a little way, but the bird 
gained on him, and he returned to the road. Whilst he was 
doing so, he saw a young bustard in a wheel-track, this he 
caught and took with him to Salisbury, where he gave it to 
Mrs. Steedman of the Red Lion Inn. This bird became very 
tame. 

Like a ghost, the bustard, every now and then, returns to 
haunt its former abode. So recently as in August, 1849, ^^• 
Waterhouse, of the British Museum, a well-known naturalist, 
was returning from Stonehenge, when, to his astonishment, a 
Great Bustard rose from the Plain, and flew off with a heavy, 
but tolerably rapid flight. 

In former days, it was the custom of the Mayors of Salisbury 
to provide a bustard as a prominent dish at the annual civic 
banquet. There are two stuffed specimens of the Great 
Bustard to be seen in the SaUsbury and South Wilts Museum ; 
these birds (male and female) were shot, within the last six 
years, on Salisbury Plain, within four miles of the route we 
are taking. The female bird was shot, at Maddington, 
Jan. 23, 187 1, and was presented to the Museum by E. 
Lywood, Esq. The male bird was shot, three days after (Jan. 
26), on land occupied by Erlysman C. Pinckney, Esq., at 
Berwick St. James, about three miles from Maddington ; and 
is deposited by Mr. Pinckney, in the Museum — where may it 
long remain, for it is a magnificent specimen. The hen bustard 
was killed by Stephen Smith, a " bird-keeper" to Mr. Lywood ; 
Smith had no shot, he saw three bustards together, picked up 



156 A Bustard cooked at Salisbury, in iSyi. 

the first round stone that came to hand, loaded his gun with it 
— fired — and hit the hen in the wing, a good shot under all the 
circumstances, for she was flying at a distance of about 300 
yards. The two other bustards escaped for the time, but the 
male bird was killed three days later, as I have mentioned. 
As the bird shot at Berwick fell, the survivor wheeled round, 
as if seeking to learn what had happened to its companion. 
The sportsman, however, was too eager — he went forward to 
pick up the bustard he had killed, and the other bird, being 
scared, flew away. 

Mr. Pinckney had his bustard cooked, and I am told that it 
resembled hare in flavour. The hen bird was cooked at my 
house, it was young, and very tender and good — many persons 
partook of it, some thought that it tasted like golden plover.^ 
The crop of this bird was nearly empty, but in it were found 
two small pieces of worked flint; if any inference is to be 
deduced from the presence of these chips, it would be, that the 
bird had lived in some district where flint is not geologically 
present, and where, consequently, every fragment of flint, as in 
parts of Brittany, has been brought by human hands, and 
shows signs of human workmanship. 

We have reached Camp Hill, but we must not expect to 
see earth-works, such as those we have elsewhere visited to- 
day. This place seems to have obtained its name from the 
circumstance that a camp was pitched here, in 1775, just before 
the American war, for the purpose of exercising the Light 
Infantry, then a new branch of the service. At Camp Hill, 
we make a sharp bend to the right, in the direction of Wilton. 
Had we proceeded along the direct road to Salisbury for 
another half mile, we should have seen a long, narrow valley 
on the right-hand side of the road, and for some distance, 
running nearly parallel to it. This is 

THE TOURNAMENT GROUND. 

One of the five steads, selected by Richard I., in which 
tournaments might be held in England. The King seems to 
have desired that English Knights should have places in their 
own country where they could meet to practise feats of arms, 

^ For accounts of the Bustard, see Smith in "Wilts. Mag.," vol. iii,, 
pp. 129—145; Swayne, "Wilts. Mag.," vol. ii., p. 212; Long, "Wilts. 
Mag.," vol. xvi., p. 140. 



The Toiwnanwit Ground. — The Wyly. 157 

instead of having to resort to the continent for the purpose, as 
heretofore. 

Accordingly, by a letter patent, dated Ville L'Evesche (Nor- 
mandy), August 22, T194, he authorised his justiciary, Hubert, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, to make arrangements for holding 
tournaments in several places, namely, betiveen Sarum a?id 
Wilton, between Warwick and Kenilworth, between Stamford 
and Warringford, between Brackely and Nixeberry, and between 
Blye and Tykehill The prelate was directed to provide two 
clerks and two knights at each place, to receive the oaths of 
those who were desirous of displaying their skill ; and certain 
fees were established for the exercise of this privilege, namely, 
for an earl twenty marks, for a baron ten, for a knight (with 
lands) four, and for a knight (without lands — an adventurer) 
two marks. All were to swear, that they would not tourney 
before they had paid the fees to the King ; and if they found 
any tourneying without having so paid, they pledged them- 
selves to take him into custody, and to deliver him to the 
King's bailiff, that he might abide the decision of the Royal 
Justiciary. 

THE WYLY. 

As we descend into the valley of the Wyly, through an avenue 
of trees, we catch peeps of Wilton and Wilton Church. Leland 
tells us that — " Wyle renneth thorough the toun of Wilton, 
divided into armes. And here cummith into Wyle, a river 
called Naddei'^ alias Fovington water, bycause it risith about 
Fovington (Fovant)." 

At the end of the avenue, may be seen the arch leading to 
Wilton House, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke and Mont- 
gomery. We turn to the left on reaching Fugglestone St. Peter 
and pass the Church. 

^ It has been doubted whether the derivation of Nadder, given at p, 5, 
is correct. Mr. Svi^ayne suggests that the names of such rivers as the Adaj' 
(in Mayo), the Adonr (in France), and the Adiir (in Sussex) have their 
origin from the Welsh dzur^ "water;" and that the name N'adder (or 
No(/^r) may also have been derived from the same word. Pritchard gives 
a list of forty-four ancient names containing this root in Italy, Germany, 
Gaul, and Britain, The word itself occurs in the Dour in Fife, Aberdeen, 
and Kent : the Dore in Hereford, and the Diiir in Lanark. In a com- 
pounded form it is present in the Glas^«r, or grey water, in Elgin ; the 
'R.other, or red water (Rhuddwr), in Sussex ; the Cal^<?r, or winding water, 
in Lancashire (twice), and in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Lanark (three 
times), Edinburgh, Nairn, Inverness, and Renfrew. 



HOSPITAL OF ST. GILES, FUGGLESTONE. 

The Leper Hospital of St. Giles, at Fugglestone, formerly stood 
within the present Park Wall, at a little distance, on the right- 
hand side of the road, after we have passed Fugglestone 
Church. No part of this building now remains. It was 
originally founded by Adelicia, second wife of Henry I., for 
the reception of lepers, and was placed at some distance from 
Wilton, as was customary with buildings devoted to that pur- 
pose. The original site of the Hospital of St. Giles-in-the- 
fields was well away from the City of London, at the time of 
its erection. 

The whole of the Hospital buildings were summarily swept 
away some fifty years ago, and the land was enclosed in Lord 
Pembroke's Park. The foundation was removed westward, 
and still exists in the form of some humble cottages, lately, 
however, much improved. 

In 37 Hen. VIII. (1545 — 6), there was a chapel covered 
with lead : and John Dowse, clerk, was Master. Its lands 
were worth ^^ 13 s. 4d. a year. Four poor persons were re- 
lieved. The Crown Commissioners in i Edw. VI., mark in 
the margin of their Report, " Thys to contynewe." Aubrey 
says " there was this inscription over the chapel door. ' 1624. 
This hospitall of St. Giles was re-edified by John Towgood, 
Maior of Wilton, and his brethren, adopted patrons thereof, 
by the gift of Queen Adelicia, wife unto King Henry the First.' 
This Adelicia was a leper. She had a windowe and dore from 
her lodgeing into the chancell of the chapell, whence she 
heard prayer. She lieth buried under a plain marble grave- 
stone ; the brasse whereof (the figure and inscription) was re- 
maining about 1684. Poore people told me that the faire was 
anciently kept here."^ 

Adelicia, second wife and relict of King Henry I., was 
daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine. She had the 
Castle of Arundel in dower from the King, and on her re- 
marrying William de Albini, he became, in her right, Earl of 
Arundel. 

The inmates of the original foundation are still supported by 
the grant of land given by Queen Adelicia. The Corporation 
of Wilton are trustees of the Charity, and appoint the Prior, as 
well as the brethren and sisters. 



1 ( 



' Nat. Hist, of Wilts," p. 73 ; quoted by Canon Jackson. 



George Herbert and Bemerton, 159 

Down to the time of the removal of the old Hospital, the 
spirit of the Royal foundress was supposed to haunt the 
locality : most Wilton persons, whose recollection extends 
back so far, will remember that those who passed near the 
Hospital, after dark, went in fear and trembling, lest they 
should meet the Leprosy Queen. 

BEMERTON. 

Again leaving the main-road, we pass through Quidhampton,^ 
and reach the village of Bemerton, interesting from being 
associated with recollections of George Herbert. 

Until 1859, there was no monumental record, at Bemerton, 
to the memory of George Herbert. For according to Izaak 
Walton : — " He lies buried in his own church, under the altar, 
and covered with a gravestone without any inscription." 

We are now about to visit a church erected as a Memorial 
to him, at no great distance from Herbert's own church. The 
foundation-stone bears the following inscription : — 

This stone was laid on the 

9th of April, 1859, 

by Elizabeth, wife of Sidney, 

1st Lord Herbert of Lea ; 

A devoted Promoter of this work. 

On the west wall of the church is a brass plate, and engraved 
upon it is as follows : — 

To God most High. 

In memory of his servant, 

George Herbert, M.A., 

of the antient race of the Earls 

of Pembroke. A renowned Poet, 

a chaste Priest, a good citizen, 

formerly Public Orator in the 

Univy- of Cambridge, and 

rector of this Parish. 

This Church as a monument 

of so excellent a man 

was erected by subscription. 

A.D. 1861. 

Leaving the Memorial Church, we proceed to George Her- 
bert's Church, it stands opposite the Rectory, which he nearly, 

^ Ante, p. 6. 



i6o Geors:e Herbert and Bemeiioii. 



'<b 



if not quite, rebuilt. Over the chimney-piece in the hall, he 
caused the following inscription to be placed : — 

"TO MY SUCCESSOR." 

" If thou chance for to find 
A new House to thy mind, 

And built without thy cost ; 
Be good to the Poor, 
As GOD gives thee store, 

And then my labour's not lost."^ 

Herbert repaired (or rebuilt) his Rectory at Bemerton, when 
in the thirty-sixth year of his age (1630). Priority may, there- 
fore, be claimed for the wording of these lines over those which 
appear in Fuller's " Holy and Profane State," published in 
1642. Fuller writes in his character of the Faithful Minister: — 
" A clergyman, who built his house from the ground, wrote on 
it this counsel to his successor, — 

' If thou dost find 
An house built to thy mind, 

Without thy cost, 
Serve thou the more 
GOD and the poor ; 
My labour is not lost.' " 

The church was always a very humble building ; it is only 
forty-five feet in length by eighteen in width. ^ The south 
and west windows (Decorated) are assigned to the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth century. The east window is 
modern, the old sittings have been removed. The decorated 
windows, font, and bell are, probably, the only objects now 
left that once met the eye of Herbert. Herbert's pastoral 
work only extended over the brief space of rather more than 
two years, yet during that short time he had so won the affec- 
tion of his parishioners, that, we are told, " some of the meaner 
sort of his parish did so love and reverence Mr. Herbert, that 
they would let their plough rest when his saint's bell rung to 
prayer, that they might also offer their devotion to God with 
him, and would then return back to their plough." Herbert's 
health gradually declined, but, while any portion of strength 

^ The original inscription does not exist, but a copy of it (at least of the 
wording) has been placed, on the outside wall of the Rectory, over the 
front door ; I believe by the present Rector, the Rev. W. P. Pigott. 
2 " Notes and Queries," Series ii., p. 460. 



George Herbert. i6i 

remained, he continued to read prayers twice every day, as his 
custom had been. At length he passed cahiily away, and in 
the Register of Bemerton, is the following entry : — " Mr. 
George Herbert, Esq., Parson, of Ffoughlston and Bemerton, 
was buried 3 day of March, 1632." 

He was born, April 3, 1593, in the Castle of Montgomery, 
Wales. His name appears among the Scholars of Trinity, 
College, Cambridge, May 5, 1609; he became a Fellow; and 
obtained the distinguished post of Public Orator, Oct. 21, 
1 6 19. George Herbert relinquished those honors to which 
this post was usually the stepping-stone, and entered the 
Church; he accepted the Prebend of Leighton Ecclesia, in 
the diocese of Lincoln, July 15, 1626. He partially rebuilt 
the church of Leighton, and caused the pulpit and reading-desk 
there to be placed on opposite sides of the church, and to be 
made of equal height ; in order to show that "preaching ought 
not to be esteemed above praying, nor praying above preach- 
ing." About 1627, his health, never very good, gave way, and 
signs of consumption began to show themselves. He was 
recommended change, and sought it at Dauntsey, in Wiltshire, 
the residence of Lord Danby. There lived at Bainton, in 
the same county, a kinsmen of Lord Danby, — Mr. Charles 
Danvers — the father of nine daughters, of whom Jane was 
his favourite. Walton tells us that, Jane ''became so much 
of a Platonick as to fall in love with Mr. Herbert unseen." 
Certain it is, that some mutual friends brought them to- 
gether; and, within three days of their first interview they 
were married. 

About three months after the marriage, Dr. Curie, being 
elevated to the See of Bath and Wells, resigned the rectory of 
Bemerton, which accordingly passed from the Patron, Lord 
Pembroke, to the King ; but when the Earl asked the living 
for Herbert, his request was granted. Herbert set out for 
Wilton, but the cure of souls lay heavy upon his mind, and 
he was in doubt whether to accept, or decline it. Lord Pem- 
broke, feeling unequal to combat his scruples, sought the 
advice of Laud, then Bishop of London ; and Walton tells us; 
that : — " The Bishop did the next day so convince Mr. Her- 
bert, that the refusal of it was a sin, that a tailor was sent for 
to come speedily from Salisbury to Wilton, to take measure, 
and make him canonical clothes against next day ; which the 
tailor did. And Mr. Herbert, being so habited, went with his. 

M 



1 62 Geors-e Herbert. 



A' 



presentation to Dr. Davenant, who was then Bishop of Salis- 
bury, and he gave him institution immediately ; and he was 
also the same day (April 26, 1630) inducted into the good, and 
more pleasant tha?i healthful^ Parsonage of Bemerton." Being 
left in the church to toll the bell, as the law required him to do, 
he wearied the patience of his friends at the door, and one of 
them, looking in at the window, saw the new rector prostrate 
before the Altar. They afterwards found that he had been 
setting rules for the government of his pastoral life, and was 
making a vow to keep them. 

Mrs. Herbert, the widow of George Herbert, was afterwards 
the wife of Sir Robert Cook, of Highnam (Gloucestershire), 
she survived her second husband about fifteen years. She died 
in 1653, and was buried at Highnam. 

According to tradition, an aged fig-tree against the wall of 
the Rectory, and a medlar in the garden were planted by 
George Herbert. 

Leaving Bemerton, we proceed to Salisbury, on our way 
passing near some brick-fields and beds of gravel. These 
formations contain flint implements that were fashioned by 
the hand of man long before Stonehenge was erected, before 
a single tumulus was raised on Salisbury Plain, before our 
hill-tops were crowned with defensive earth-works, even before 
the valleys themselves were sufiiciently deepened to render 
the hills such strong natural defensive positions as they after- 
wards became. 

It has been already mentioned that, at a comparatively 
recent geological period (Pleistocene), the Avon must at times 
have assumed a torrential character — this was also the case 
with the Wyly and the other rivers of the district. The brick- 
earth at Fisherton, which in Harding's and Baker's pits has a 
thickness of about 30 feet, is the sediment from the turbid 
flood-waters of the ancient rivers Wyly and Avon. 

Fig. 78 represents a section in Baker's pit, exposed in 1864, 
from a sketch made at the time by Dr. Blackmore. There is 
very distinct stratification in these beds, all of which have a 
general dip towards the Wyly. In Fig. 78 « is vegetable 
mould ; b clay and gravel ; c a sandy vein, largely consisting of 
material derived from the waste of the upper greensand, a 
deposit that occurs higher up the valley; ^brick-earth: e a dark 
vein containing minute land shells {Pupce muscorum) in great 
abundance ; / brick-earth ; g a dark brown vein (vegetable ?) ; 



Pleistocene deposits. 



163 




Fig. 78. 

h brick-earth, containing flint implements (Palseolithic). Re- 
mains of animals (mammalia) are found in the beds d^ f^ and h^ 
but they are more numerous in h and close under g. 

Many of the remains belong to species that are now either 
locally, or absolutely, extinct ; among these are the cave-lion, 
cave-hyaena, reindeer, musk-sheep, woolly elephant (mammoth), 
and rhinoceros. Associated with these remains are implements 
of flint of the earliest type at present known (Palaeolithic). 
The implement shown in Fig. 79 was found at Fisherton, in 
undisturbed brick-earth, beneath remains of the mammoth. 
Such implements are met with, but seldom in the brick earth, 
but in certain beds of gravel in the neighbourhood (coloured 
yellow on the plan of the route) they are comparatively abun- 
dant. Implements from the sheet of gravel above Bemerton 
are shown by Figs. 80 and 81 ; and the very fine implement 
represented by Fig. 82 is from a similar deposit of gravel, at 
Milford Hill, on the other side of Salisbury. All these imple- 
ments are figured half size : the specimen from Highfield, 
Fig. 4, is unusually small. 

These (Quaternary) gravels are of fluviatile origin, not 

M 2 




Fig. 79. Fisherton. |. 




Fig. 81. Highpield. i. 



Fig. 80, Bemerton. i. 



I 




l^'«-83. MlLPOKI, HiLl,. 



i66 



Pleistocene deposits. 



marine like the Tertiary gravels previously mentioned. Com- 
posed as they are of moderately large-sized stones, they could 
only have been deposited at the bottom of the ancient rivers, 
but as these gravels are now at an elevation of about 80 feet 
above the present level of the rivers that flow by them, it 
seems to follow that the valleys have been eroded to their 
present depth si7ice the gravels were deposited. 

The time requisite for the excavation of a valley to the 
depth of about 80 feet, chiefly by river action, if it could be 
calculated by years, is believed to afford us the minimum age 
of the implements found in these gravels. In the later deposit 
— the brick-earth — implements associated with extinct animals 
have been found, as already mentioned. 

The relative position of these deposits may be seen in Fig. 
83, which represents a section, half-way across the valley, at 
the point where we shall re-enter the main-road from Wilton, 



Cemcterv, 



Railwav Cutting 



River wily 




Fig, 83. Section at Bemerton. 



after we leave Bemerton. In this section, a is the high-level 
Quaternary gravel containing (Palaeolithic) implements ; b the 
brick-earth ; c the alluvium ; and d the low-level Quaternary 
gravel. The dotted Une, e, indicates the (probable) bottom of 
the valley when the gravel, ^, was deposited, this gravel is now 
at an elevation of about 80 feet above the level of the Wyly. ^ 

In some districts, much light has been thrown on the habits 
of primaeval man by the examination of ancient deposits found 



Cave deposits. 167 

in caves ; this branch of investigation is locally denied to us, 
for caves are not formed in the chalk. The objects found go 
to prove that some of these caves served as dwelling-places 
for men who, like the people who fashioned the implements 
shown in Figs. 80, 81, and 82, were contemporary with the 
mammoth and other animals of the Quaternary period. Im- 
plements of flint and bone, mingled with bones of animals 
that have served for food, form the floor of some of these 
caves, the whole being cemented into a solid mass by stalag- 
mite. Caves that have yielded such evidence have been 
examined in England, Belgium, France, and elsewhere ; but 
some of the more interesting and best known discoveries of this 
kind have been made, in caves and under rock-shelters, in the 
sides of the valleys of the Dordogne and Vezere, Central 
France. To judge by the remains found in these caves, the 
reindeer formed by far the larger portion of the food of the 
people who lived in them, and this animal evidently must then 
have roamed in enormous herds over Central France. The 
severity of the climate at the time may be inferred from the 
presence of this and other sub-arctic animals. 

Some of the flint implements resemble those found in the 
Quaternary gravels of England and France, such a specimen 
is shown in Fig. 84, it is from the cave of Le Moustier, 
Dordogne. In some of these caves, associated with remains 
of the characteristic Quaternary fauna, are found flint imple- 
ments and arrow-heads of types not hitherto met with in the 
Quaternary gravels ; examples of such are shown in Figs. 85, 
86, and 87, the flint tools known as " scrapers" are present in 
large numbers. All the flint implements, like those from the 
Quaternary gravels are, without exception, made by the process 
of flaking, hitherto no trace of artificial rubbing has been 
discovered upon any of them. 

Harpoon-heads, needles, and other objects were made by 
these cave-dwellers from bone, and the antler of the reindeer ; 
Figs. 88, 89, and 90, furnish examples. 

The most remarkable remains left behind by man in these 
refuse-heaps are the sulptured reindeer antlers, and the figures 
engraved on fragments of schist and on (mammoth) ivory. 
Perhaps the most striking figure that has been discovered is 
that of the mammoth, Fig. 91, engraved on a fragment of its 
own tusk. The peculiar spiral curvature of the tusk and the 
long mane, which are not now to be found in any living 



i68 



Cave deposits. 




Fig. 84. Le Moustisr. 



elephant, prove that the original was familiar to the eye of the 
artist, and these peculiarities are so faithfully rendered that it 
is quite impossible for the animal to be confounded with either 
of the two living species. In Fig. 92, the natural curvature of 
one of the tines has been taken advantage of by the artist to 
engrave the head, and the characteristic recurved horns of the 
ibex. 

Most of these repesentations of animals are merely scratched 
in outline upon pieces of mammoth tusk, reindeer antler, 
bone, or stone ; but some are actual carvings, such as the 
specimen shown in Fig. 93. The attempt to copy any natural 
object was most unusual in the earlier culture-periods of the 
Old World, if we may judge from the remains that have 
reached us. Still, the animal-sculptures, such as those figured, 
furnish us with evidence that man, even at a very early period, 
possessed an innate love of art that lifted him far above the 
level of the brute creation. 




Fig. 85. 
Laugeeie Haute. 



« 



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i 
i 



jL 
1 



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Fig. 87. 
Laugerie Haute. 



Fig. 8G. 
Laugeeie Haute. 



1/ 



Fig. 88. La Madelaine. 



1^16.89. Pig. 90 
La Madelaine. 




Fig. 91. La Madelaine. 



FisJierton Angei'. 



171 




Fig. 92. Latjgerie Basse. 




Fig. 93. 



FISHERTON ANGER. 

After a drive of about a mile we reach Fisherton Aiiger 
(properly " Aucher"). Although regarded as a suburb of 
Salisbury, it is in reality more ancient than the city itself It is 
mentioned in Domesday as Fiscartoiie, and was held in the 
time of Edward, the Confessor, by Godric. "Ther was a 
village at Fisherton, over Avon," writes Leland, " or ever New- 
Saresbyri was builded, and had a paroche chirche there, as it 
hath yet." The old church, mentioned by Leland, reputed to 
have been one of the most ancient in the diocese, has been 



172 The Hermitage at Fisherton. 

destroyed. (See Fig. 94.) We shall pass the new church, 
erected on a fresh site ; it is in the style of the close of the 
13 th century. 

In 1324, a chantry was endowed by Stephen le Crioar and 
Matilda his wife, in the church of St. Clement, Fisherton 
Anger. The endowment is in Bishop Mortival's Register. 
In 1547 (i Edw. VL), John Powell, aged 36 years, was Incum- 
bent. Clear value jT^^ i8s. 2d. per annum. *' Mem. — The said 
Incumbent is no priest, but a layman, and had this chantry given 
unto hym for and to his exhibition to the schoole. Con- 
tinuateth to the schoole qiiousque with the accustomed wages." 

At Fisherton was also a " Hermitage." In the register of 
Bishop Chandler, at Sarum, of the date of 141 8, is a curious 
document relating to it. This document was a Commission of 
inquiry previous to a License being granted to the candidate. 
The actual place of abode appears to have been a nook of the 
church itself. The substance of the document, in English, is 
as follows : — 

" John (Chandler), Bishop of Sarum, &c. To Godfrey 
Crukadan and Sir Nicholas Godwyn, Canons of our church, 
greeting. Whereas our beloved in Christ, John, Hermit, of 
the Hermitage of Fisherton, near Sarum, hath prayed us that 
we would allow him, being desirous by a life of continence and 
chastity to attain to a better life, to be shut up in a narrow 
place of hermitage at the end of the chapel of Fisherton, and 
there serve God ; we, knowing the nature of human frailty, 
and that the Devil, the enemy of mankind, often causes the 
pious resolution of a moment to be followed up by regret ; but 
not knowing the said petitioner nor the circumstances of the 
said chapel and hermitage, nor how far we may be interfering 
with the rights of owners and parishioners, &c., command you 
to make inquiry into these things ; whether the said John is of 
good life and conversation ; whether he is likely to follow up 
his vow ; whether he was ever betrothed or married ; whether 
any damage would be done to owners or parishioners, by the 
shutting up of the said John. Let inquiry be made on the 
oath both of clerks and laymen. Then, should no impediment 
be found why the said John should not be shut up as he 
desires, let him be so shut up as he wishes in the place afore- 
said ; bestow on him a blessing ; do whatever else is right 
and proper, and report the same to us."^ 

1 Canoa Jackson, " Wilts. Mag.," vol. x., pp. 280, 281. 



174 



Monastery of the Black Friars, at Fishertoii. 



As we pass down Fisherton, we cross a bridge (Summerlock 
bridge) carried over a small rivulet, which flows out of the 
Avon and quickly enters the united streams of Wyly and 
Nadder. On the left-hand side of the bridge there stood, 
until within the last few years, the picturesque group of 
buildings shown in Fig. 95. 



\ 




Fig. 95. Old Buildings in Fisherton, now destroyed. 

" In this Fisherton,^'' writes Leland, " now a suburb of New- 
Saresbyri, was, since the erection of the new toun, an house of 
Blake Freres builded not far from Fisherton Bridge." The 
bridge alluded to is that carried over the main stream of the 
Avon, near the Salisbury Infirmary. The old stone bridge 
was destroyed a few years since, and is replaced by one of 
iron. 



MONASTERY OF THE BLACK FRIARS, 

FISHERTON. 

Some remains of this building were discovered in digging for 
foundations for the Messrs. Williams' malthouses, between the 
Infirmary and the Market House. The skeletons found were 
orientated, but whether the skulls laid to the east, or to the 
west, was not observed, indeed very little notice was taken of 
the discovery. 

The Religious Houses in Salisbury were two small establish- 
ments. 



The Begging-Friars. 175 

1. The Dominicans, Black Friars, or Friars Preachers. They 
came from Wilton, and settled at Fisherton. Their conventual 
church is mentioned. (Hatcher, p. 90.) 

2. The Franciscans, Grey Friars, or Friars Minors. They 
also had a conventual church. (Hatcher, p. 57, 90.)^ 

In 1348, Elias Howes directs his body to be buried in the 
church of the Friars Preachers at Salisbury \ similar requests 
were made by other persons in 1361, 140T, and 1410. The 
convent of these Friars Preachers, at Wilton, was situated in 
what is now known as West Street. Part of the community 
removed to Fisherton, prior to 1335. The building at Fisherton 
is said to have been founded by Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop 
of Canterbury (1272 — 1278). 

The Black Friars and the Grey Friars were mendicant 
monks. 

In the beginning of the thirteenth century, two men, in 
different places, about the same time, conceived the idea of 
founding a new religious society on the principle that all the 
members should subsist wholly upon alms. Francis of Assisi 
organised an institution of Mendicant friars in Italy, and from 
him, their founder, they became known as '' Franciscans." A 
short time afterwards, Dominic, a native of Castile (Spain), 
formed another fraternity of the same kind in the south of 
France, and they, after their founder, were called " Domi- 
nicans." Both these communities bound themselves to possess 
no property (either individually or in common), but to depend 
for their livelihood entirely on begging, and never to acquire, 
even in this way, more than was sufficient for the supply of a 
single day. The see of Rome, at first, declined to countenance 
the movement, but it was so generally regarded with favour by 
the people, that, in 1203, Innocent III. found himself obliged 
to sanction the society of the Franciscans; and, in 12 16, his 
successor, Honorius III., confirmed the order of Dominicans 
These societies rapidly obtained extensive popularity. The 
Mendicant monks found ready access to all classes of society, 
even the humblest. They knocked at every door, entered 
every cottage, accommodated themselves to the manners, and 
even the prejudices, of the working classes. To extend their 
influence still more widely, they adopted the plan of admitting 
the laity to a connection with their society under the name of 

^ Canon Jackson, "Wilts Mag,," vol. x., p. 305. 



176 Monastery of the G?'ey Friais. 

Tertiaries^ such persons being bound by no monastic vow, but 
simply pledged to promote, as far as possible, the interests of 
the order to which they had become attached, while they them- 
selves were living in the world and engaged in their ordinary 
occupations. Towards the middle of the thirteenth century, 
there was scarcely a place in which the Dominicans and Fran- 
circans had not their Tertiaries, and thus the Mendicants 
exceeded in influence all other monks. 

One of the first symptoms of the reforming spirit which dis- 
played itself in England was hostility to the begging-monks. 
From the first, Wycliffe was their avowed adversary ; and they 
were the fiercest enemies of the intrepid English reformer. 

In England, the Dominicans were popularly known as 
" Black Friars," on account of the colour of their dress ; the 
part of London where they first established themselves still 
passes by the name of *' Blackfriars." In accordance with the 
great object for which the order was established, they were 
called " Preachers ;" they possessed special privileges, and 
were allowed to preach publicly everywhere without license 
from the bishops. 

The Dominicans were incessantly at variance with the Jesuits 
on the one hand, and the Franciscans on the other. 

MONASTERY OF THE GREY FRIARS, SALISBURY. 

The Franciscans, by way of showing their humility, styled 
themselves Fratemiti, " Little Brothers," and so, in England, 
became known as J//;/<9;rs or " Minors." The Friars Minors 
came to England in the reign of Henry III., and their first 
establishment was at Canterbury. In the affair of the divorce 
sought by Henry VIII., the King was violently opposed by 
the Franciscans, and, accordingly, this order was the first that 
was banished from the kingdom at the time of the Reformation. 
It has been asserted, though without apparent foundation, 
that the Convent of Friars Minors was established at Old 
Sarum, and then removed to Salisbury. William of Worcester 
ascribes the establishment to Bishop Poor. Henry III. was 
a liberal benefactor to the Friars Minors of Salisbury. In the 
Rolls of the Placita Coronae, under the date 1260, reference 
is made to a felon, who took sanctuary in the church of the 
Friars Minors at Salisbury. When at the Blackmore Museum 
you are actually standing upon the grounds of the Old 



The Orientaiion of Interments. 177 

Monastery of the Grey Friars, and a building near, still 
passes by the name of " The Friary." 

In 1873, some discoveries were made by Mr. Lovibond in 
digging for foundations for his malt-house, close to the Black- 
more Museum. Several skeletons were found, in ranks parallel 
to each other, and in every instance the feet were towards the 
west — not the east. Such a position of the body is, perhaps, a 
little remarkable at the early period to which these interments 
may be referred ; for the Grey Friars' Monastery, at Salisbury, 
appears to have been erected about the year 1231. It existed 
for rather more than three centuries, and was destroyed for the 
sake of the building materials, in 1544. 

It has been generally supposed that interments, both of the 
clergy and the laity, were with the feet towards the east until 
June, 1 6 14; when the sacerdotal privilege of burial with the 
feet towards the west was granted in the Ritiiale Romanum, 
sanctioned by Pope Paul V. This custom is said to have 
originated in Italy, but not to have commenced even there 
before the i6th century. The doctrine suggested by such a 
position is, that the clergy were to be honoured with a 
resurrection prior to that of the secular dead j their Master 
was to appear in the east, and the risen clergy were to advance 
with Him to the judgment of the general multitude. A 
somewhat similar idea appears to have existed even within the 
present century; for, so lately as in 1859, the clergyman of a 
parish in Derbyshire died, and was buried with his head 
towards the east ; the reason given being, that at the resur- 
rection he might be ready to face his people. This position of 
the body is occasionally indicated upon the monument ; thus 
there is the brass of a priest, modern of course, in St. Chad's 
Cathedral, Birmingham, placed with the head towards the altar. 

I should be glad to learn whether, at an early period, inter- 
ments east of the chancel usually took place with the feet 
towards the altar, and consequently towards the west. In my 
own experience, I only remember to have noticed one such 
instance ; it was at Winterborne Stoke, very close to our route 
to-day. At all events such a custom, if it ever obtained to any 
extent, appears to have passed away from general recollection ; 
so much so, that in Wales, the east wind is popularly known as 
" The wind of the dead men's feet." 

All the skeletons found by Mr. Lovibond, near the site of 
the Grey Friars' Monastery, had been buried ivithout coffins. 

N 



178 , Fisher ton Gaol. 

Perhaps this, almost literally, taking nothing out of the world 
with them, was adopted by the Franciscans as a meet termina- 
tion to their life-vow of poverty. 

The interment of bodies without coffins, however, seems not 
to have been at all exceptional even in comparatively modern 
times. Thus Lewis, in his " History of Thanet," gives a note 
by the Vicar of St. John's respecting his fees : — " For burial in 
a sheet only — 6d." This is dated A.D. 1577. Again, from the 
same authority, the fee at Birchington and Ville of Woode 
(A.D. 1638) was for: — "Noe coffin'd grave — 6d." In early 
times, it was frequently the practice to make a dying request 
to be buried near the Church of Lady's Island (Barony of 
Forth) without a coffin. This was regarded as an act of 
humiliation and devotion on the part of the deceased. The 
St. Clairs, of Roslin, were all buried without coffins until the 
latter part of the 17th century ; when Sir James St. Clair was 
buried in a coffin, with great pomp. The Traceys, the Doyles, 
the Dalys, and others buried their dead without coffins in the 
graveyard of the Augustinian Abbey of St. John, near Ennis- 
worthy, county Wexford, until about the year 181 8. And the 
Rev. John Bernard Palmer, first Abbot of the Cistercians in 
England since the Reformation, was buried in the Chapter- 
House at Longborough, without a coffin. 

Close to Fisherton bridge, and between it and the Infirmary, 
is a small weather-beaten piece of masonry, this is all that 
remains of \\\q first 

FISHERTON GAOL. 

In the oldest times about which we have any information, 
the chief gaol of Wiltshire was at the Castle of Old Sarum. 

We know by record that there was a gaol delivery at Old 
Sarum, so late as in 1435. How much later a prison was kept 
up there does not appear ; probably not long, for thirty-three 
years afterwards, we find prisoners of importance at New 
Sarum. Early in the year 1469, Sir Thomas Hungerford, and 
Courtenay, heir of the Earl of Devon, having taken part 
against King Edward IV., were committed to the Sheriff's 
prison at Salisbury, and being condemned to die, were drawn 
from their prison through the city, and out of the city to the 
gallows at Bemerton,^ and there hanged. 

* The site of the gallows, in 1751, was at the spot where the road forks, 
one leading to Devizes, the other to Wilton : m in Naish's map. 



The First FishertoJi Gaol. 179 

In 1568, it was determined to erect a new County Gaol at 
East Harnham, in full view of the grounds of the Bishop's 
palace. This intention was abandoned, owing to a remon- 
strance from Bishop Jewel, who, amongst other arguments, 
used the following, " that it muste needes be very incommo- 
dious unto the poor prisoners, beeinge utterly sequestred from 
all manner of relife of the whole Cittie, from whence thei have 
evermore hitherto had theire preseiit a?id greatteste aide, and with- 
out whiche thei aj-e like to fa7?iisheJ" But the Bishop's real 
objection is no doubt contained in the following passage : — 
"As for mine owne poore parte, it wilbe sutche annoiance 
unto me, beinge placed within one flight-shoote of my house, 
and directely be-fore my studie, and chamber windowe, that 
this yo'" determination takinge place, I must needes be forced 
to seeke somme other lodginge, having none other house of 
mine owne in al the world. Whiche injurie I am wel assured, 
it was never y'* minde to seeke againste me." He further adds : 
" And leste yo^^ should thinke, there is none other place con- 
veniente for that purpose to be had, but onely that of 
Harnham, I wil take upon me presentely to deale for an other 
place in Fisherton, sutche as I doubte not, but yo'^ yourselves 
in yo"" owne judgementes, and in al respectes wil thinke to be 
many waies more conveniente, then the other." The letter 
ends : — " From Sarum ii Janrii, 1568. 

" Yo, poore frende 

"Jo : Sarum." 

Fisherton was chosen as the site for the new gaol, and the 
magistrates deputed two of their number to manage the busi- 
ness (Christopher Willoughby, Esq., of Knoyle, and Sir John 
Thynne, the builder of Longleat). 

A piece of land at Fisherton was purchased, of Mr. A'barowe, 
for ^150. The first Fisherton gaol was 53 feet long by 28 feet 
broad. There was an upper story, a woman's prison, and a 
keeper's house adjoining; the walls of the gaol were 23 feet 
high ; the inner walls of the convict's department were of burr- 
stone without any ashlar ; there were seven windows 3 feet by 
2 feet. The iron bars of each window weighed 2ilbs. at 3d. 
a lb. For the burr-stone the old castle of Sarum was plun- 
dered, 80 loads at 8d. a load being hauled away ; but, before 
this could be done, labourers were employed at 6d. a day for 
12 days to make a road passable for carts from Old Sarum to 



1 8o The firs e Fisherton Gaol, 

Fisherton. The ashlar stone was fetched from Chihiiark ; the 
earth and mortar from Harnham, the lime and water-sand 
from Milford. The tiler was paid lod. a day, and the tiles 
came from Whiteparish and Cranbourne. The work went on 
very slowly, for the great difficulty was to get in the money. 
Rate-paying was new ; the first poor-rate in Wilts seems to 
have been about the year 1553, and the rate for the Gaol, 
being in 1568, was perhaps a very early taste of county-rate. 
In fact, this first County Gaol at Fisherton, 53 feet long by 28 
feet broad, was literally 10 years in building; begun in 1568 
and finished in 1578.^ 

We have reached Salisbury, and the " Stonehenge 

Excursion" has come to an end. 

^ Canon Jackson, Wilts. Mag., vol ix., pp. 82 — 87. 



Bennett Brothers, Printers, .Journal Office, Salisbury. 






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No. 

82— Cathedral from N.W. (oblong) 

83— Ditto (upright) 

84— Ditto from North-East 

85— Ditto 

86— Ditto 

87— Ditto 

88— Ditto West Front 

89— Ditto 

90— Ditto from North 

91 — Ditto from the Cloisters 

92 — Ditto, Exterior of Cloisters 

93— Ditto, East End 

94— Ditto from North-East 

95— Ditto from N.W. with North Porch 

96— Ditto, East End (distant) 

97 — Ditto from Bishop's Garden 

98— Ditto 

99— Ditto and Bishop's Palace 
100— Ditto, Exterior of Chapter House 

101 — Ditto from the Eiver 

102— Ditto, West Porch 

103, 104— Ditto, the Cloisters 

105— Ditto, Choir 

106— Ditto 

107— Ditto, Eeredos 

108— Ditto 

109— Ditto, North Aisle Choir 

110 — Ditto, Chapter House 

111— Ditto 

112— Ditto 

113— Close Gate looking North 

114 — Ditto from High Street 

115— St. Ann's Street 

116— The Poultry Cross 

117_White Hart Hotel 

118— St. Edmund's Church 
119— The Market Square 

120— Stonehenge 

121— Ditto 

122— Ditto 

123, 124— Ditto 

230— Cathedral, North-West (upright) 

231— Ditto, South View 

232 — Ditto, and Chapter House (exterior) 

233 — Ditto, from Long Bridge 

234, 235, 236— Ditto, from Harnham ... 

237— Ditto, West Door 

238— Ditto, Choir looking West 

239— Ditto, Choir 

240— Ditto, Nave looking West 

241— Ditto, Nave looking East 

242— Ditto, South Aisle looking East... 

213— Ditto, North Aisle looking East... 

244 — Ditto, Choir and Screen 

245, 246— Ditto, North Aisle looking W. 

247 — Ditto, Lady Chapel and South Aisle 

248— Ditto, Lady Chapel looking West 

249— Ditto, South Aisle looking West 

250— St. Thomas' Church (exterior) 

251, 252— Ditto (interior) 

253-St. Edmund's Church (inter.) 
254— Cathedral, Screen from the Nave 
255— Ditto, Pulpit in the Nave 

256— Bishop's Palace 

257— Congregational Church .., 
258— Close Gate from High Street... 
259— Ditto, from St. Ann's Street ... 



12 by 10 


11 by 6 


9 by 7. 


Cabnt. 


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K 






10 by 


7. 8 by 5 


5 by 4. 


m 


1/- 


6d. 


1027 


1840 


2031 


1040 






1049a . . 




1049 






1017 


1847 


2017 


1034 






1036 


1B36 


2020 




1862 


2029 


1030 


1864 






1838 


2019 


1035 


1835 

1848 


2015 

2022 


1918 




2431 


1912 


2585 


2432 


1026 


1861 
2591 


2032 




2592 


2429 


1042 


18i2 


2003 


1043 


1843 


2016 


1039 


1839 
1857 


2021a 


1023 






1916 


2593 


2430 


1913 


25S8 




1914 


2590 
2532 


214 


1032 


1832 


216 


1041 


18 il 




1037 


1853 


2018 


• • « 


1852 




• • • 


1866 




• • • 


1851 




... 


1850 




... 


1855 




• •• 


1849 




1033 


1833 


217 


1025 


1870 
1865 


2024 


1028 


18G8 


2027 




1871 


2028 


1015 


1869 


2026 


1016 






1019 


1860 




1014 






1012 


1867 


2025 


1045 


1845 


207 


1046 


1606 


208 
209 


1044 




209a 


1031 


... 


210 
211 



WILSOjST'S SEHIES. Unmounted. 



Salisbury Cathedral, West Front, upright 
I>ifcfco ditto oblong 

Ditto from North-East 
Dir.to ditto 

Ditto from the Palace 
Ditto from the South-East 
Ditto from the Prtlace Grounds 
Ditto from the Meadows 
Ditto, the Spire, from the Cloisters 
Ditto, West Doorway 

Ditto, Chapter House, from the Bisliop's Garden 
Ditto, the Cloister Court 
Ditto, the Cloister Archway 
Ditto, Nave, looking East 
Ditto ditto West 

Ditto, Choir, looking East, upright 
Ditto ditto oblong 

Ditto ditto West 

Ditto, Chantry Chapels and Eeredos 
Ditto ditto 

Ditto, Chantry iti Choir 
Ditto, the Reredos 
Ditto, the Lailv Chapel 
Ditto, the Pulpit 
Ditto, the Transepts 
Ditto, the South Aisle 
Ditto, the Screen 
Dicto, Chapter House, Doorway 
Ditto, Interior of Chapter House 
Ditto, Roof of Chapter House 

Diito, AitoRelievo—" Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" 
I>itto, "Destruction of Sodom" 

Ditto, "Joseph's Di-eam" 

Ditto, " Joseph Sold into Egypt" 

I^itto, "Joseph and his i-!rethren" 

I>itto, " The Construction of the Ark" 

Ditto, " The Creation" 

Ditto, the Cloisters 
Tlie Poultry Cross 
St. Edmund's College 
"W'ilton Cliurch. 
Ditto, the Doorway- 
Ditto, Interior, looking North 
Ditto ditto South 

Wardour Castle 
Ditto, Courtyard 
Ditto, Grand Staircase 
Stonehenge 

Ditto 
Ditto 
Ditto 
Ditto 
Ditto 






£?■•• 



^ 



FRITH'S SERIES. Unmounted. 



No. Salisbury Cathedral- 

1223 Distant View from the Kivcr 

1713 North-West View 

1714 Ditto, upright 

12539 Ditto 

12540 Ditto, upright 
17J6 Ditto 

1715 West Front - 

12542 Ditto 

12541 Ditto, full front - 
879 West Door - 

70G2 North Side - 

7063 Ditto, from North-East 

7065 Ditto, from North-West 

12547 South Side, from Lake 

12543 a he Spire, from South 
12546 Ditto, from South-East 

1221 Ditto, from South 

7064 Ditto and Cloister Court 

12544 Ditto ditto 

12545 The Cloister Court 

1222 Ditto 

7066 East End 
1220 Chapter House, &c., from South-East 

1224 Ditto 

12548 Ditto 

12549 Nave, looking East 

12550 Ditto 

12551 Nave, looking- West 

12552 Choir, lookicg East 

12553 TheEeredos 

12554 Choir, looking West 

12555 The Pulpit - 

1717 View across Nave 

1228 South Aisle, Nave 

12557 South Choir Aisle 

12556 North Choir Aisle 

12558 The Transepts 

1229 View across Transept 

12559 Lady Chapel 

1230 Ditto 

1231 Ditto 

12560 Chapter House 

1232 Ditto, View in 

1233 Ditto 

1234 Ditto 

1235 Ditto 

1225 Chapter House Door 

12561 Bishop Hamilton's Tomb 

12562 Bishop Bridport's Tomb 

1236 The Cloisters 

12563 Ditto 

12564 Ditto, Window 

1718 Ditto, Exterior 



n by ' 

2/- 



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9 bv? 

1/6 

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The * * indicate the Sizes in which the Views can be supplied. 



7 by 5 

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^^ BOOKS, PRINTS, &C. 

ON SALE AND PUBLISHED BY 

BEOWN and CO, SALISBURY. 

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL-EXTERIOR. 

A North-East View, 17 by 12 inches, from a Drawing by Owen B 
Carter, Lithogi-aphed by Day and Hagbe, colored, 7s. : tinted, 3s 6d • 
small paper, 2s. 6d. ' • . 

Wilton Church, a Series of Four splendid Views, from 
Drawings by Owen B. Carter, printed in tinted Lithograpby by Dav 
and Haghe, 10s. each. & f j j »jr 

An Exterior View, lithographed by Day and Haghe, 2s. 6d. 

Stonehenge, a West View, size 14 by 7f inches ; price Is. This 
neiv ^vas selected by the late Sir B. C. Hoare to illustrate his 
History of Ancient Wiltshire," and is the most extensive and 
correct View published. 

A direct View of the remains of the Adytum of Stonehenge 

—A View of the whole Building— A Prospect of Stonehenge— A Peep 
into the Sanctum Sanctorum. From a very old Copperplate. Is. 

Stonehenge— Plans, Description, and Theories, by W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, Author of Inductive Metrology ; price 3s. 6d. 

The Visitor's Illustrated Pocket Guide to Stonehenge 
and Salisbury Plain, with a copious Index by John Sprules, of 
the University of Oxford ; 23. 6d. 

Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North 
Wiltshire Downs, in a Hundred Square Miles round Abury— being a 
Key to the Large Map of the above, by the Eev. A. C. Smith, M.A., 
Hon.:,Secretary to the Wilts Archaeological and Natural History 
Society, &c. Second Edition, with the Map bound up with it; 4to. 
cloth, 423. ' 

Old Sarum, an exact Plan and Section of, also the East 
View of that Ancient City as it stood in 553, with 
description and references to Plan, Is. 

Old Sarum, Plan of, also a Representation of the Castle 
and Two Modern Views, with Letterpress by Henry Wansey, 
r.A.s., price 6d. 

Indications of the Ancient Cathedral of Old Sarum, visible 
in September, 1834. Built, between 1078 and 1091 ; consecrated, 1092 ; 
and demolished, 1332. Ground Plan restored by a comparison with 
buildings of the same period. Plan of the Ancient Close of Old Sarum, 
by the late Mr. Hatcher, of Salisbury. Printed on one sheet. Price 6d. 

Hoare's (Sir R. C.) Bart.) Hints on the Topography of 
Wiltshire, 8vo., Is. 

Duke's Prolusiones Historieas, or Essays illustrative of the Halle 
of John Halle, Citizen and Merchant of Salisbury, with numerous 
Engravings, 5s., published at 21s. 

Early Annals of the Episcopate in Wilts and Dorset, by 
the Rev. William Henry Jones, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar of Bradford-on- 
Avon and Rural Dean in the Diocese of Sai-um, author of " Domes- 
day for Wilts, translated and edited with illustrative Notes." Price 
Is., published at 2s. 6d. 



n 



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